Kicking off a whole new world of energy production

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Adam Best, Principal Research Scientist (CSIRO), Senator Hollie Hughes (Senator for NSW), Brian Craighead, Director of Development and Technology (Energy Renaissance), Mark Chilcolte, Managing Director (Energy Renaissance), Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Karen Andrews, then Minister for Industry, Science and Technology and David Chuter, CEO and Managing Director (IMCRC).

Source: Energy Renaissance

Caroline Tung speaks with Energy Renaissance development director, Brian Craighead, and Innovative Manufacturing CRC CEO, David Chuter, about the advent of lithium-ion battery manufacturing in Australia, and how it could spur an entire industry.

Lithium has been touted as the new power source that will revolutionise energy production in Australia.  

The big ambition for Energy Renaissance, Australia’s first lithium-ion battery manufacturer, is to use Australian resources to build great batteries, while reducing the country’s climate footprint.  

Energy Renaissance technology and development director, Brian Craighead, said the current demand for batteries was “incredible”, and the company was already in the early stages of talking about building a second facility.  

After surveying the market, the company sought to produce batteries that would work well in Australia’s hot climate, are easy to transport and deploy, are safe, and less expensive.   

“When we first started the business, we didn’t come up with the ideas, or the design, the market did,” he said.  

While lithium batteries are optimised at 25°C worldwide, making the batteries in Australia that can operate in harsh conditions meant adding more cooling to the battery.