Negotiations are underway with Swansea Council on the ideal location for the state-of-the-art battery plant, a development that will bring up to 1,000 new jobs to South Wales and work has already begun on their pilot facilities in West Virginia, USA
DST Innovations have announced £1.25m private investment to expand their battery research facility in Bridgend, creating up to 25 permanent scientific jobs as they expand their laboratory in preparation for their large-scale battery manufacturing plants in Wales and USA.
“This is yet another wonderful step for our incredible business partners in Wales and we are excited beyond belief to be a part of this innovative project,” said West Virginia Governor Jim Justice. “As I’ve said before, we are thrilled to be at the forefront of this game-changing effort in new energy, especially as a state known for our mining and natural resources. Much like Wales, we in West Virginia appreciate what it means to cultivate our resources to power our communities.”
Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart said
“We very much welcome this announcement. We continue to work closely with DST to find a suitable site in Swansea to create a facility that would deliver world leading battery technology.”
BATRI, DST’s ground-breaking green technology developed in their lab in Bridgend, takes organic materials such high quality coal and transforms it into activated/hard carbon that is used in its specialist offshore and coastal energy storage solutions. The innovative BATRI design is the leading feature of the £1.4 billion Dragon Energy Island development backed by its international consortium.
Tony Miles, CEO of DST said
“This expansion is exciting for both DST and for Wales. We are creating a greener alternative to the existing chemical and lithium batteries. Our technology significantly reduces the problems surrounding recycling and the disposal of traditional batteries, along with providing safe energy storage, even in extreme environments.
BATRI already meets the ambitious future goals set by the Government for battery recycling and this investment will enable us to continue to advance the standard and push even further”.
