With assistance from Accenture, Recharge Industries is developing a gigafactory in Geelong, Australia, which could produce up to 30-gigawatt hours of storage. 2023 Recharge Industries
A portfolio firm of Scale Facilitation®, Recharge Industries, has chosen Accenture as its engineering partner to advance the construction of one of the largest gigafactories in the world in Australia.
The large-scale lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plant in Geelong, Victoria, will produce up to 30 gigawatt hours (GWh) of storage capacity annually for the stationary energy storage industry and the electric vehicle market when operating at full capacity. In order to produce batteries with a capacity of 2 GWh annually in the second half of 2024 and 6 GWh by 2026, construction will start in the second half of 2023. When activities reach their maximum level, the factory will directly employ 1,500–2,000 people.
Now that the project has entered the detailed engineering stage, Recharge IndustriesTM and Accenture are laying the groundwork for building the plant. The framework agreement between the two businesses includes the following Accenture consulting and engineering services: advisory on facility layout, including utility planning and setup of the production lines; assistance with obtaining and shipping the necessary equipment; conducting of final tests of all line equipment; ongoing process and product engineering support to improve battery production.
With legally binding off-take contracts and finance in place, Recharge IndustriesTM has already acquired the manufacturing equipment for the first 2 GWh production line. Australia should receive the equipment around the end of May 2023.
To achieve the ambitious timeframe, the two businesses will work together with Charge CCCV (C4V), a technology partner of Recharge IndustriesTM. Planning, engineering, and construction are sped up by C4V’s proven intellectual property (IP), accredited supply chain, and blueprints and technical concepts for battery manufacture. Recharge IndustriesTM and Accenture will collaborate closely to modify C4V’s IP to the specifications of the Geelong production facility.
Rob Fitzpatrick, CEO of Recharge Industries™, explained: “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. 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.”
Soeren Schrader, a managing director at Accenture’s digital engineering and manufacturing service, Industry X, said: “Companies, economies and nations must speed their energy transition, a task hampered by ongoing disruptions in the global supply chains. Recharge Industries™ advanced manufacturing facility in Geelong will go a long way in helping the Australian industry tackle these challenges. This project is a testament to our deep engineering and industry expertise.”
Following a rigorous international tendering process overseen by Phil King, Global Head of Real Estate and Development at Scale Facilitation®, Accenture will work closely with world-renowned engineering, procurement, and construction management companies to be publicly revealed in the upcoming weeks.
