Faraday Challenge: Scale up – National Battery Manufacturing Development Facility

As part of the Government’s Faraday Challenge Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, the Advanced Propulsion Centre are working in partnership with Innovate UK. This is to establish a UK Battery Manufacturing and Development Facility funded by the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy. The facility will establish and maintain a leading position in manufacturing technologies for batteries and their components.

The Faraday Challenge Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund is looking to co-fund to a single bid. This will be to design, create and operate a battery facility in the UK. This facility must be able to develop next generation manufacturing solutions for cell and module formats that can be proven in high volume, (equivalent to 1 GWh/annum).

This turnkey facility will be internationally recognised as a world leader in the development of battery manufacturing technologies.

The facility will support scale-up activity for automotive batteries. It will be a national open access, flexible prototyping and pilot production facility for cell and module manufacture. The facility will be equipped similarly to a full production factory, but with greater flexibility to product and process.

It is expected this facility will be used by government supported and privately funded research and development (R&D) projects as part of a complete UK battery R&D ecosystem.

The facility will be used to develop the manufacturing tools and methods required for mass production. It will demonstrate that they can be run at the required rate of production, in a robust and reliable manner, meeting product quality targets.

It is expected projects that use the facility will then progress to industry investment in commercial battery facilities in the UK.

It must:

• provide a pilot manufacturing plant with the capability to simultaneously trial and prove-out initial production runs of advanced battery components and assemblies
• enable and scale-up advanced battery product and manufacturing technology to feed implementation into high volume production
• enable the development and scale-up of advanced battery cell and module technologies designed for high volume production
  enable the development of advanced battery manufacturing processes and machine technology for high volume production
• provide access for UK companies to cell and battery technologies not yet available in the open commodity market
• provide a collaborative “learning factory” to speed up learning and develop vital skills for the UK battery industry

It must also:

• have “open to all” capability, but also able to run a number of OEM and Tier 1 projects in commercially confidential areas where required
• enable volume rate (equivalent to at least 1 GWh / annum trial out, quality assurance verification of manufactured product, before the fitment to end vehicle or application
• enable teaching and skills development to increase the UK skill base for the emerging UK battery industry
• provide a degree of public engagement, such as having an interactive exhibition to engage school age pupils, as well as the facility to host events and visits
• actively encourage participation at all levels of the battery supply chain

Consideration should be given to product and manufacturing processes that are compatible with end of life reuse and re-cycling (but the re-cycling of batteries is not within the scope of this facility).

Specific competition themes

The facility should include the following manufacture stages:

• electrode materials (current and near-future technologies): mixing and anode/cathode coating
• cells: in a variety of formats; manufacture, formation and testing
• modules: build and test

Eligibility

To lead a project you must:

• be a UK based organisation
• be an organisation of any size
• carry out your project in the UK
• be able to clearly demonstrate the current state aid proposition that your proposal follows, and how this satisfies this regulation.

Funding and project details

The £246 million Faraday Challenge Fund is divided by Research, Innovation and Scale Up. The successful bidder will receive a share of the allocation for Scale Up. As this is an industrial scale facility, it is anticipated that project costs will be in excess of £40 million.

The Faraday Challenge will co-fund a single successful project. The Advanced Propulsion Centre is leading on this aspect of the Faraday Challenge in partnership with Innovate UK. The winning application must demonstrate that it has wide ranging cross-sector support for its proposal from:

• original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)
• supply chain partners covering all Tiers (1, 2, 3 etc.)
• small to medium enterprises (SMEs)
• research and technology organisations (RTOs)
• academia

Key funding criteria:

• only organisations with UK operations may apply
• the project must be undertaken in the UK
• the build aspect of the project is expected to last a maximum of 24 months.
• construction of the facility should be complete by late 2019 or early 2020, with the facility operational by early 2020.

The amount of grant funding you request should be the minimum amount you need for the project to proceed.

Project types

Priority will be given to proposals that:

• have the capability to deliver in the timescale
• can demonstrate a well-established consortium
• can demonstrate they are able to co-fund
• have existing capabilities in the relevant product and process technology areas