August 4, 2022: AMTE Power has selected Dundee in Scotland as the preferred site for its first ‘MegaFactory’.
The sodium-ion battery cells developer said the new 0.5GWh plant could be operational and in production by the third quarter of 2025 — complementing its existing facility in Thurso.
AMTE is in talks with the Scottish Enterprise agency in a bid to attract funding for the project, although the company did not disclose financial details.
The firm said the new factory would create up to 215 “high skilled on-site jobs and 800 more across the supply chain by producing the high-performance battery cells needed to help electrify vehicles, homes, and industries for the UK’s energy transition”.
In addition to its Thurso operations, AMTE has also been working with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre in the English Midlands and at its technology centre in Oxford.
CEO Kevin Brundish told BESB: “The MegaFactory approach reduces the timescales of bringing our cells to market ensuring that we can meet the huge demand we’re already seeing from our customers in the automotive and energy storage markets.
“MegaFactories are smaller than gigafactories and can, therefore, be constructed and become operational much faster.
“Our manufacturing experience at Thurso and at UKBIC means we’ve been able to anticipate and plan for the opportunities and challenges associated with moving to mass production volumes — putting the business in an incredibly strong position.”
Brundish said the firm’s Thurso site would continue to play a key role in the development and small-scale manufacture of next-generation cells.