Plans for a 3,000-job battery gigafactory in Northumberland are set to become a reality after multimillion-pound Government funding helped attract £1.7bn from private investors.
Work will start within the next two months on the Britishvolt factory at Cambois, turning the former coal yards of the old Blyth Power Station into a massive factory building batteries for electric cars.
As well as the 3,000 jobs that are hoped will be created directly on the site, up to 5,000 more jobs could be created in the plant’s supply chain.
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Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng yesterday visited the site to welcome the plans, calling Britishvolt’s plans “world beating technology”.
The company - which was only formed two years ago - has been given a grant worth from the Government’s Automotive Transformation Fund and has secured a partnership with investment groups Trixtax and abrdn to fund the project. Government support is stretching to ‘tens of millions of pounds’.
The announcement means that the North East will have the UK’s first two battery gigafactories, following plans from Nissan and its battery partners Envision AESC announced next year. The developments put the region at the lead of efforts to de-carbonise the transport sector and contribute to the Government’s net zero agenda.
The investment also comes just a few days after the North East regained its unwanted title of having the UK’s highest unemployment rate, with rising joblessness in the region running counter to falling rates nationally.
Mr Kwarteng said: “This investment is enormously significant. We’re talking about billions of pounds of investment, 8,000 jobs and the re-industrialisation of the UK and the region.
“We look at a pretty rigorous programme when it comes to investment but I was satisfied, as were my colleagues across Government, that this is a really good use of taxpayers’ money that can bring in billions of pounds of investment.”
Britishvolt first announced its plans for the site near Blyth in late 2020, though it warned at the time that it still needed to raise another £1.2bn to bring its vision to reality.
The company acquired the site last April and secured planning permission for what will be the fourth largest building in the UK in July. Preparatory work on the site has begun and the company will start the main construction process in the first quarter of this year.
The project will be built in phases to keep up with technological advances, but Britishvolt is aiming to have a total capacity of over 30GWh - producing batteries for more than 300,000 electric vehicles a year - by the end of the decade.
Britishvolt executive chairman Peter Rolton said: “This announcement is a major step in putting the UK at the forefront of the global energy transition, unlocking huge private sector investment that will develop the technology and skills required for Britain to play its part in the next industrial revolution.
“The news is the first step in creating a commercialised battery ecosystem, that perfectly aligns with the existing R&D ecosystem. Britishvolt will be the anchor for attracting further sections of the supply chain, be it refining or recycling, to co-locate on the Britishvolt site. This not only shortens supply chains but also allows for partners to access the abundance of renewable energy on site to truly power low carbon, sustainable battery production.
“It will also allow us to catapult our unique tailormade business proposition on a global scale, with sites already selected for development in other countries.
“I’m especially proud that this is such a major boost for Northumberland – the county of my birth - bringing around 3,000 direct highly-skilled jobs and another 5,000+ indirect wider supply chain roles into the region.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “Britishvolt’s plan to build a new gigafactory in Northumberland is a strong testament to the skilled workers of the North East and the UK’s place at the helm of the global green industrial revolution.
“Backed by Government and private sector investment, this new battery factory will boost the production of electric vehicles in the UK, whilst levelling up opportunity and bringing thousands of new highly-skilled jobs to communities in our industrial heartlands.”
Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery, whose constituency includes the site, called Britishvolt’s announcement “fantastic”, saying it could “transform the area”. Blyth Valley MP Ian Levy and Northumberland County Council leader Glen Sanderson also welcomed the news.
