The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), the national battery manufacturing development facility, is set to revolutionise the way it generates energy with an innovative project which will transform its roof into a solar farm capable of generating a peak output of 2.8MW of clean, renewable electricity.
In addition to the solar farm, the project will see the creation of two 2MWh Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) which will give the facility greater flexibility over when it uses energy, allowing solar energy generated throughout the day to be used overnight. Construction work on the BESS is set to commence in March 2024.
Once fully operational, the new Vital Energi installation will significantly help to reduce the facility’s carbon footprint by 555,000kg per year.
Funding for the solar farm is being provided by UK Research and Innovation, via the Faraday Battery Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK. The FBC is a £610m investment programme which supports world-class scientific technology development and manufacturing scale-up capability for batteries in the UK.
Work is already underway on the solar farm with completion scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024.
