Battery specialist Lithium Werks has signed a €1.6-billion agreement with the Zhejiang Jiashan Economic and Technological Development Zone to construct a 60-hectare (nearly 150-acre) battery cell factory in the Yangtze Delta in China. This is the beginning of a 15-20 year plan to construct several large factories globally.

The factory’s production capacity is expected to be 500 GWh per year by 2030. Due to this rapid growth and investments from companies such as Oost NL, Lithium Werks projects revenue of over $1 billion by 2020. Lithium Werks is also working with the University of Twente to develop a 2,000-engineer-strong research campus by 2025.

“Significant investments are needed for an actual energy transition. The Chinese government has been working on clean energy plans for some time and their commitment confirms the crucial role that batteries play in this,” said University of Twente Rector Victor van der Chijs.

According to the Capgemini Research Institute, “During the next decade alone, we can expect demand for lithium-ion batteries to grow tenfold. The battery industry will need to respond by constructing factories to deliver capacity in excess of 10,000 GWh in the next three decades.”

Source: ChargedEVs