TECHNOLOGY NEWS
9 July 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk
UK Gigafactory
plans revealed
New facility aims for 30GWh per year
UK battery start-ups AMTE
Power and Britishvolt
have announced plans to
investigate building the UK’s
first Gigafactory.
The two firms have signed a
memorandum of understanding
pledging to collaborate on the
construction of a plant for
producing large volumes of
lithium-ion batteries for electric
vehicles and energy storage.
Britishvolt chief executive
Lars Carlstrom said that the aim is
to build a factory able to produce
30GWh worth of lithium batteries
per year for the domestic market,
thereby providing a much-need
boost to the UK’s growing electric
vehicle sector and creating as many
as 4000 new jobs.
“It is costly and carbonintensive
to have lithium ion
batteries imported from the Far
East, and this GigaPlant would
cement a solid onshore supply
chain to ensure quality and
eliminate future uncertainty of
supply,” he said.
Kevin Brundish, CEO of AMTE
Power, which already operates a
cell manufacturing plant in Thurso,
Scotland, added: “The recent global
crisis has further highlighted the
importance of having a robust
onshore supply chain, and the
creation of a GigaPlant would
place the UK in a strong position
to service automotive and energy
storage markets.”
As previously reported by The
Engineer there are growing fears
that a lack of high-volume UK
battery manufacturing capacity
could have a disastrous impact on
the automotive sector.
As vehicle producers switch
to producing greater volumes of
electric vehicles, and wind down
internal combustion engine
production, the concern is that the
high cost of importing batteries
will erode the commercial case for
making cars here.
In a recent report, The UK’s
Faraday Institution claimed that
to avert this scenario the UK will
need to build at least seven 20GWh
gigafactories by 2040.
Currently, the UK’s largest
battery manufacturing facility is
the Envision Sunderland plant
which was formerly owned by
Nissan. At one time its annual
2GWh capacity made it the largest
battery plant in Europe but it
is now dwarfed by the scale of
facilities elsewhere in the world.
Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 is expected to
ultimately have an annual battery
production capacity of around
150GWh per year.
Smart energy technologies are to be
piloted at Portsmouth International
Port in a project to improve air
quality, reduce carbon emissions and
facilitate port electrification.
Portsmouth International Port
intends to significantly decarbonise
its energy operations as part of PESO
(Port Energy Systems Optimisation), a
project co-funded by Innovate UK that
aims to show how ports can use smart
grid technology and management
software to reduce atmospheric
emissions and improve air quality
whilst optimising energy costs.
The PESO pilot system aims to
integrate local electricity generation,
novel energy storage and smart
energy management to demonstrate
how ports can meet emerging
on-shore power demands and the
requirements of ships using shore
power.JF
JON EXCELL reports
JASON FORD reports
Read more about batteries at
www.theengineer.co.uk
A COVID-19 test kit that simultaneously detects the
presence of the virus in six individuals in under 30
minutes is moving closer to market.
Brunel University London, together with the
Universities of Lancaster and Surrey have teamed
up with GB Electronics (UK) Ltd, Inovo Robotics and
Unique Secure to develop the inexpensive, rapid,
diagnostic test kit and make it widely available.
The partnership unites industry and academic
experts in the fields of electronic and software
engineering, diagnostics, virology, robotics and
artificial intelligence to fast track the development of a
new COVID-19 test kit.
It is envisaged that the portable testing device can
be used in areas with large concentrations of people,
such as care homes, sizeable employers and airports, to
quickly ascertain if an individual has the virus. Results
from current virus detection tests take several hours
to process.
A Surrey spokesperson told The Engineer that the
system does not use lateral flow for detection. Instead
it uses colorimetric detection using an inbuilt camera.
The images obtained are then processed using an AI
algorithm.
Clinical tests in three NHS hospitals will begin
shortly to validate the performance of the SARS-CoV-2
test kit.
The portable testing kit will also make testing for
COVID-19 more accessible in developing countries.
“Many vulnerable people around the world have
had limited or no access to fast Covid-19 virus testing
during the pandemic,” said Henry Woods, co-founder
of Inovo Robotics. “We see the potential to make a real
difference in limiting the spread of the virus through
this technology.”
PORT AIMS FOR
RAPID TEST FOR SMART SOLUTIONS
COVID-19
/www.theengineer.co.uk
/www.theengineer.co.uk