Adelaide to get second battery factory

Adelaide appears likely to get a second factory for producing lithium ion batteries, following an announcement on Wednesday that Alpha-ESS had signed an agreement to produce over 8,000 of their home battery systems a year.

This confirms accelerating plans across the country to establish a fully-fledged lithium mine to end market manufacturing sector in Australia.

One Step of The Grid reports that Alpha-ESS would become the second company manufacturing batteries for home storage of energy, following sonnen, which is scheduled to begin production this month at the former Holden Elizabeth site.

“Following the establishment of the state government’s $200 million home battery grant and loan scheme, two companies have moved to set up manufacturing operations in our state,” SA energy minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said in a statement.

Alpha-ESS began in 2012 and claims an installed base of 10,000 home battery sets worldwide. It has been operating in Australia since 2015, and has offices in China and Germany.

According to the SA government’s release, Alpha aims to produce 8,000 of its SMILE 5 batteries a year by 2020.

Production will initially be with Minda Disability Support Services, before moving to a dedicated site. It is estimated 120 jobs will be created.

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