Recharge IndustriesTM, a Scale Facilitation® portfolio company, has engaged Accenture as its engineering provider to move forward on building one of the world’s largest gigafactories in Australia.
At full capacity, the large-scale lithium-ion battery cell production facility in Geelong, Victoria, will generate up to 30 gigawatt hours (GWh) of storage capacity per year for electric vehicles and stationary energy storage markets. Construction will begin in the second half of 2023, with the goal of producing batteries equal to 2 GWh annually in the second half of 2024 and 6 GWh by 2026. As operations expand to full capacity, the factory will employ an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 workers directly.
Recharge IndustriesTM and Accenture are now moving the project into the detailed engineering phase, which will lay the foundation for the facility’s construction. The two companies have signed a framework contract covering the following Accenture consulting and engineering capabilities: advisory on the facility layout, including utility planning and set-up of the production lines; assistance in procuring and shipping the required equipment; conduction of final tests of all line equipment; ongoing process and product engineering support to improve battery production.
Recharge IndustriesTM has already secured the production equipment for the first 2 GWh production line with binding off-take contracts and secured funding. The equipment is scheduled to arrive in Australia in late May 2023.
The two companies will collaborate closely with Charge CCCV (C4V), a technology partner of Recharge IndustriesTM, to support the ambitious timing. C4V provides proven Intellectual Property (IP), a qualified supply chain, blueprints and technology concepts for battery manufacturing, which accelerate planning, engineering, and construction. Accenture will work closely with Recharge IndustriesTM to adapt C4V’s IP to the conditions and requirements of the Geelong manufacturing plant.
Rob Fitzpatrick, CEO of Recharge IndustriesTM, 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 IndustriesTM 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.”
Accenture will collaborate closely with world-leading engineering, procurement, and construction management firms to be formally announced in the coming weeks, following a rigorous global tender process led by Phil King, Global Head of Real Estate and Development at Scale Facilitation®.
