Recharge Industries, part of the Scale Facilitation group, has engaged Accenture as its engineering provider to move forward on building one of the world’s largest gigafactories in Geelong, south of Melbourne.
At full capacity, the large-scale lithium-ion battery cell production facility in Geelong, Victoria, will generate up to 30GWh of storage capacity per year for electric vehicles and stationary energy storage markets. Construction will begin in the second half of 2023, with the goal of producing batteries equal to 2GWh annually in the second half of 2024 and 6GWh by 2026. As operations expand to full capacity, the factory will employ an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 workers directly.
Recharge Industries and Accenture are now moving the project into the detailed engineering phase, which will lay the foundation for the facility’s construction. During this period, Accenture will advise on the facility layout, including utility planning and set-up of the production lines. The company will assist in procuring and shipping the required equipment, conduct final tests of all line equipment, and provide ongoing process and product engineering support to improve battery production. Production equipment for the first 2 GWh production line has already been secured with binding off-take contracts and secured funding. The equipment is scheduled to arrive in Australia in late May 2023.
A collaboration with Recharge Industries technology partner Charge CCCV (C4V) supports the ambitious timing. C4V provides proven Intellectual Property (IP), a qualified supply chain, blueprints and technology concepts for battery manufacturing, which accelerate planning, engineering, and construction. Accenture will work closely with Recharge Industries to adapt C4V’s IP to the conditions and requirements of the Geelong manufacturing plant.
“Establishing a sovereign manufacturing capability to produce state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery cells is critical to Australia’s renewable energy economy – meeting national demand, generating export income and securing supply chains,” Rob Fitzpatrick, CEO of Recharge Industries explained. “Our factory, which we are building with the assistance of Accenture’s engineering and capital projects expertise and underpinned by C4V’s IP and battery technology, will create thousands of jobs and attract large-scale investment from key players in Australia, the Indo-Pacific region, and other parts of the world.”