International professional services company Accenture has been engaged by Recharge Industries as its engineering provider for one of the world’s largest gigafactories, in Geelong, Victoria, which will commence construction in the second half of 2023.
At full capacity, the large-scale lithium-ion battery cell production facility will generate up to 30 gigawatt hours (GWh) of storage capacity per year for electric vehicles and stationary energy storage markets, and it will directly employ 1500 to 2000 workers.
Recharge Industries utilises artificial intelligence and multinational research partnerships to create advanced battery cell manufacturing capabilities. The company has secured production equipment for the first 2GWh production line at the Geelong facility, which is expected to arrive in Australia in late May 2023.
“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,” says Rob Fitzpatrick, CEO, Recharge Industries.
“Our factory – which we are building with the assistance of Accenture’s engineering and capital projects expertise, and is underpinned by the intellectual property and battery technology of Charge CCCV [a technology partner of Recharge Industries] – 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.”
Accenture will collaborate with world-leading engineering, procurement and construction management firms on the project.
“Companies, economies and nations must speed their energy transition, a task hampered by ongoing disruptions in the global supply chains,” says Soeren Schrader, a managing director at Accenture’s digital engineering and manufacturing service, Industry X.
“Recharge Industries’’ advanced manufacturing facility in Geelong will go a long way in helping the Australian industry tackle these challenges. This project is testament to our deep engineering and industry expertise.”