{"id":44632,"date":"2023-03-15T17:05:48","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T18:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/?p=44632"},"modified":"2023-03-15T18:45:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T18:45:15","slug":"entrepreneur-declares-australias-first-battery-gigafactory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/2023\/03\/15\/entrepreneur-declares-australias-first-battery-gigafactory\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneur declares Australia\u2019s first battery gigafactory"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"_3sPDP\"><\/div>\n<header class=\"seCvj\"><\/header>\n<section class=\"_1Bz7o\">\n<div class=\"WRbku\">\n<figure class=\"_3WbQG NvmVw\" data-pb-type=\"im\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Tom Richardson\" class=\"_1srKI\" data-testid=\"Image-image\" src=\"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/43737721579c552b1b7b4694a69307f63961a241\" data-id=\"43737721579c552b1b7b4694a69307f63961a241\" data-pb-im-config=\"{&quot;urls&quot;:[&quot;https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/43737721579c552b1b7b4694a69307f63961a241-1&quot;,&quot; https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/4373772-2579c552b-2b7b4694a69307f6396-2a24-2-2 2x&quot;],&quot;width&quot;:100,&quot;aspectRatio&quot;:1,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;square1x1&quot;}\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"_2dzEx\">\n<div class=\"_2cdD4\" data-testid=\"ArticleTimestamp\">Mar 16, 2023 \u2013 5.00am<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"_1YPgH\">\n<div class=\"tl7wu\">\n<p>An Australian entrepreneur plans to unleash Anthony Albanese\u2019s dream of making Australia a battery manufacturing powerhouse by building multiple gigafactories nationwide as new cathedrals to the clean energy age.<\/p>\n<p>Brian Craighead\u2019s brand of environmental and industrial evangelism has already attracted former prime minister Scott Morrison and current industry and science minister Ed Husic to visit his brainchild: the nation\u2019s first lithium-ion battery manufacturing gigafactory in Tomago, NSW.<\/p>\n<p>But such batteries will not meet the demands of high performance applications that rely on silicon chips manufactured mainly in Taiwan. Nor are they suitable for electric vehicles.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"gzJMC undefined NvmVw\" data-pb-type=\"im\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"_1srKI\" data-testid=\"Image-image\" src=\"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/edcc397dfcd1405af1ca991f99196f3f13e60d84\" data-id=\"edcc397dfcd1405af1ca991f99196f3f13e60d84\" data-pb-im-config=\"{&quot;aspectRatio&quot;:1.776846,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;landscape16x9&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:382,&quot;urls&quot;:[&quot;https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/edcc397dfcd1405af1ca991f99196f3f13e60d84-1&quot;,&quot; https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/edcc397dfcd-2405af-2ca99-2f99-296f3f-23e60d84-2 2x&quot;]}\" width=\"382\" height=\"215\" \/><figcaption class=\"LuHig\">\n<p>Energy Renaissance One in Tomago, NSW, is described as Australia\u2019s first gigafactory for battery production. &nbsp;<cite class=\"_23SOU\"><\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The 57-year-old founder of eight-year-old start-up Energy Renaissance said the finished Renaissance One gigafactory will employ 700 people at full capacity on a 4500 square metre site, which could scale to produce 5.3 gigawatt hours of energy storage per year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAustralia has all the minerals in the world you need for batteries, and right now, it\u2019s like selling water in a drought,\u201d he said. \u201cTo put it into perspective we could open one gigafactory a month for six years and not meet the current undersupply of batteries. We\u2019re always hopeful of support from federal or state government for expansion capital.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"_3JfHJ\"><\/aside>\n<div class=\"ZAfSI\">\n<div class=\"adWrapper _3XglG Hqxcp\" data-testid=\"ad-wrapper\"><small class=\"_3azTn\">Advertisement<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"_2J452\">\n<div class=\"_33oUB\">\n<div class=\"tl7wu\" id=\"endOfArticle\">\n<p>On Tuesday, Mr Craighead attended a National Battery Strategy roundtable in Canberra hosted by Mr Husic, ahead of an official open for Renaissance One scheduled in July.<\/p>\n<p>At scale, the gigafactory could earn $500 million in annual sales within five years the entrepreneur, who is born and raised in the Scottish town of Aberdeen, claimed.<\/p>\n<p>His formative days in the offshore oil and gas industry \u201csucking up oil and gas on a Chevron rig\u201d pushed Mr Craighead to head overseas, spending the last 25 years in Australia developing clean energy and digital tech projects.<\/p>\n<p>The Energy Renaissance project is funded by a small group of private, high net worth investors united by a belief in the energy transition and Australian manufacturing. They have invested around $23 million to date. Another $2 million has come from government groups CSIRO and the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnergy security is of national importance now,\u201d said Mr Craighead. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a great job selling the world wool and buying back jumpers, but we don\u2019t want that with batteries, we want to make everything here.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Australian sourced<\/h2>\n<div class=\"ZAfSI\">\n<div class=\"adWrapper _3XglG _35ekj Hqxcp _3_nxH\" data-testid=\"ad-wrapper\"><small class=\"_3azTn\">Advertisement<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The vision for the gigafactory is to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afr.com\/companies\/mining\/pm-s-battery-dream-admirable-but-unlikely-ceos-20230228-p5co8j\">use 92 per cent Australian sourced materials to manufacture batteries and<\/a> support the government\u2019s target of shoring up the nation\u2019s sovereign manufacturing capacity.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.afr.com\/companies\/energy\/eight-big-batteries-to-be-built-by-2025-20221217-p5c74x\">The batteries will store power for industrial, agricultural, commercial or utility sites<\/a> and be designed with Australia\u2019s climate in mind, in rows of power banks slightly taller than a household fridge, Mr Craighead said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"gzJMC _1UNIi NvmVw\" data-pb-type=\"im\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"_1srKI\" data-testid=\"Image-image\" src=\"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/579ebacbc07707b1d3b5e15e0b2d34501b87bb99\" data-id=\"579ebacbc07707b1d3b5e15e0b2d34501b87bb99\" data-pb-im-config=\"{&quot;aspectRatio&quot;:1,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;square1x1&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:382,&quot;urls&quot;:[&quot;https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/579ebacbc07707b1d3b5e15e0b2d34501b87bb99-1&quot;,&quot; https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/579ebacbc07707b-2d3b5e-25e0b2d3450-2b87bb99-2 2x&quot;]}\" width=\"382\" height=\"382\" \/><figcaption class=\"LuHig\">\n<p>Renaissance Energy founder Brian Craighead. The group is due to become the first company in Australia to manufacture large-scale lithium-ion batteries.&nbsp;<cite class=\"_23SOU\"><\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>They\u2019ll also be used in heavy vehicles \u201cto drive big power\u201d, but not electric cars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy [battery] component if you take out all the parts and lay them on the ground the screws, bolts, wires and plastics, 92 per cent of those components are sourced in Australia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday we\u2019re making the batteries. The final step is to make the cells, so we\u2019re entirely vertically integrated. Now, basically 100 per cent of cells in this country are imported. The reality is China has jumped ahead of the world, which is why you need to make batteries and cells here.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"ZAfSI\">\n<div class=\"adWrapper _3XglG _35ekj Hqxcp _3_nxH\" data-testid=\"ad-wrapper\"><small class=\"_3azTn\">Advertisement<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mr Craighead said Australian industry can and should make its own chemical-based battery cells, but warned calls for local electric vehicle (EV) battery production are unrealistic due to the location of existing global supply chains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor EVs you need a vehicle manufacturing industry around you to buy things, it doesn\u2019t make any sense to do it without that, as it\u2019s a scale thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Today, most of the giant auto assembly plants are in North Asia, East Asia, North America and the European Union, which suggests automakers would decline the option to ship batteries from Australia given the associated higher costs and complex logistics.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Craighead also warned Australia is unlikely to ever produce the high-tech silicon-based semiconductor chips dominated by Taiwan and needed for energy dense batteries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe [US President] Biden administration is super-focused on getting silicon, semiconductor manufacturing back to the US, but that\u2019s billions of dollars, we\u2019re too small a country with 25 million people, it\u2019s not viable for us to introduce that type of industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Australia does boast other advanced battery manufacturing businesses. These include Sydney University spin-out Gelion, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021. While Queensland-based battery tech group Graphene Manufacturing Group is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and has partnerships with the University of Queensland\u2019s bioengineering and nanotechnology research functions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"_3E2eQ\">\n<div class=\"_2wCJp\">\n<div class=\"_1fSQD\"><span class=\"_13Ymr\" data-testid=\"AuthorCard\"><span><strong><a class=\"_35mP2\" data-testid=\"AuthorURL\" href=\"https:\/\/www.afr.com\/by\/tom-richardson-p4yvow\">Tom Richardson<\/a><\/strong> writes and comments on markets including equities, debt, crypto, software, banking, payments, and regulation. He worked in asset management at Bank of New York Mellon in London.<\/span><span class=\"_1OfwR AJ5Ph\" data-testid=\"Author-Social\"><span> Connect with Tom on <a class=\"_3q9R7\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@tommyr345?lang=en\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/span><span> Email Tom at <a class=\"_3AEsg\" href=\"mailto:tom.richardson@afr.com\">tom.richardson@afr.com<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"_1jVnP\" id=\"stickyContainer\">\n<div class=\"_3w2pu\">\n<div class=\"ZAfSI\">\n<div class=\"adWrapper _3XglG\" data-testid=\"ad-wrapper\" id=\"stickyAd\"><small class=\"_3azTn\">Advertisement<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mar 16, 2023 \u2013 5.00am An Australian entrepreneur plans to unleash Anthony Albanese\u2019s dream of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44632"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44644,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44632\/revisions\/44644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}