Recharge Industries™, a Scale Facilitation® portfolio company, has engaged Accenture (NYSE: ACN) as its engineering provider to move forward on building one of the world’s largest gigafactories in Australia.

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Recharge Industries™ is building a gigafactory in Geelong, Australia, with help from Accenture, expected to generate up to 30 gigawatt hours of storage capacity. © Recharge Industries™ 2023

At full capacity, the large-scale lithium-ion battery cell production facility in Geelong, Victoria, will generate up to 30 gigawatt hours (GWh) of storage capacity per year for electric vehicles and stationary energy storage markets. Construction will begin in the second half of 2023, with the goal of producing batteries equal to 2 GWh annually in the second half of 2024 and 6 GWh by 2026. As operations expand to full capacity, the factory will employ an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 workers directly.

Recharge Industries™ and Accenture are now moving the project into the detailed engineering phase, which will lay the foundation for the facility’s construction. The two companies have signed a framework contract covering the following Accenture consulting and engineering capabilities: advisory on the facility layout, including utility planning and set-up of the production lines; assistance in procuring and shipping the required equipment; conduction of final tests of all line equipment; ongoing process and product engineering support to improve battery production.

Recharge Industries™ has already secured the production equipment for the first 2 GWh production line with binding off-take contracts and secured funding. The equipment is scheduled to arrive in Australia in late May 2023.

The two companies will collaborate closely with Charge CCCV (C4V), a technology partner of Recharge Industries™, to support the ambitious timing. C4V provides proven Intellectual Property (IP), a qualified supply chain, blueprints and technology concepts for battery manufacturing, which accelerate planning, engineering, and construction. Accenture will work closely with Recharge Industries™ to adapt C4V’s IP to the conditions and requirements of the Geelong manufacturing plant.

Rob Fitzpatrick, CEO of Recharge Industries™, explained: “Establishing a sovereign manufacturing capability to produce state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery cells is critical to Australia’s renewable energy economy – meeting national demand, generating export income and securing supply chains. Our factory, which we are building with the assistance of Accenture’s engineering and capital projects expertise and underpinned by C4V’s IP and battery technology, will create thousands of jobs and attract large-scale investment from key players in Australia, the Indo-Pacific region, and other parts of the world.”

Soeren Schrader, a managing director at Accenture’s digital engineering and manufacturing service, Industry X, said: “Companies, economies and nations must speed their energy transition, a task hampered by ongoing disruptions in the global supply chains. Recharge Industries™ advanced manufacturing facility in Geelong will go a long way in helping the Australian industry tackle these challenges. This project is a testament to our deep engineering and industry expertise.”

Accenture will collaborate closely with world-leading engineering, procurement, and construction management firms to be formally announced in the coming weeks, following a rigorous global tender process led by Phil King, Global Head of Real Estate and Development at Scale Facilitation®.

About Recharge Industries™

Generating our green future, Recharge Industries™ is establishing a large-scale lithium-ion battery cell production and research capability in Australia. Using world leading artificial intelligence (AI) and multinational research partnerships, we are finding ways to make batteries better, safer, and longer lasting. We are powering the transition to a low emissions future by creating advanced battery cell manufacturing capabilities onshore.

For more information on Recharge Industries™, please visit www.rechargeindustries.com.

About Scale Facilitation®

With its Global Headquarters in Manhattan and its Global Innovation Center in Geelong, Australia, Scale Facilitation® is working bilaterally to bring together research, advanced manufacturing, capital, supply chains and talent.

Scale Facilitation® is an investment firm with a novel approach de-risking projects by empowering innovators to maintain focus on their craft and facilitating the many critical services and capabilities required to deliver large-scale advanced manufacturing and innovation projects. Scale Facilitation® removes the many barriers to commercialization for innovators by giving access to the right strategic partners and collaborators who will adopt and scale their inventions.

For more information on Scale Facilitation®, please visit www.scalefacilitation.com.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth, and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent and innovation led company with 738,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Accenture Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients succeed and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners, and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

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