odysseus2000 wrote:BobbyD
If possible you want to build your batteries near your car plant , and the number of those in the uk is falling with no reason to predict a turn around. Plus other aspects and unpredictability of Brexit. The UK isn't the last place I'd build a battery plant, but it's a long way down the list.
Ideally the UK would have its own BEV factories, but even without that there is a good case to be made for having a battery fab plant to supply storage which imho is essential for renewable energy grid.
Currently, unless I have numbers wrong, there is a huge mismatch between battery supply and demand.
What ever negative opinion anyone has of the UK and/or UK workers, management, politicians etc there is imho no question that we have everything that is needed to have a state of the art battery factory here in terms of design, skilled workers, supporting infra structure etc and a ready market for product.
This is a huge opportunity that it would be good to take rather than saying it would be good and having the opportunity taken by others.
Regards,
No longer on a train longer version:
Just lost an 80% complete long response because it didn't survive being timed out while I ate supper angry summary of the no longer on a train longer version:
There are a number of things to evaluate when selecting where to put a battery manufactory.
1. Battery production, we recall from earlier discussions about the environmental impact of BEV's is hugely energy hungry. Building your battery in a place which has a plentiful supply of green energy will massively reduce the environmental impact of building batteries.
2. Battery production, we recall from earlier discussions about the environmental impact of BEV's is hugely energy hungry. Building your battery in a place which has a plentiful supply of cheap energy will massively reduce the cost of building batteries.
For 1 & 2 see for example Northvolt One in Sweden, built to take advantage of massive Hydro generation by a municipally owned energy company with an obsession about zero emission energy which turns out the cheapest green energy in Europe, by a company aiming to create the world's greenest battery whilst still being market competitive.
The UK has a decent energy mix, but nothing like Skelleftea and it isn't cheap.
3. Build near your inputs. For example again, Northvolt One. There are a number of places in Europe which could make a claim to be conveniently close to the raw materials required for a battery, the UK is not amongst them.
4. Build near your destination. For example Tesla in the states, Northvolt/VW joint venture in Germany. The UK is losing car plants like they are going out of fashion, if you are looking to build batteries for BEV's almost anywhere in Europe would be a better bet.
5. Build your batteries where they can supply numerous potential markets across frictionless borders. Eg. 27 countries not trying to leave the EU.
3, 4 and 5 are more damning for the UK. We don't produce the materials or the end product and we are currently trying to leave the single market of 27 other countries which contains 309 automotive production and assembly plants. If you threw a dart at a map of Europe you'd do well to hit a spot which does worse on these considerations.
At the moment static storage seems to be envisoned as running off ex-BEV batteries given a second life when they no longer have the legs to push your car along, so given the explosion in BEV's you hold as inevitable why would you need to manufacture batteries for static storage? Interestingly another aspect of Northvolt is that they are starting out with a strong emphasis on the entire life cycle of the cell, including recycling in to the production process, so that may change with static and mobile storage solutions diverging in the technology they use as ex-BEV power packs become more valuable as materials for new BEV power packs rather than a waste product incorporated in to static storage to get more years out of the cell.