Greenpower Park is the new name of the Gigafactory site at Coventry Airport. The change in name comes with a new website and a major marketing campaign aimed at promoting the site as a strategic centre for electrification and clean energy technologies in Europe.
The city’s biggest project now comprises a range of significant partners and supporters including the West Midlands Combined Authority, Warwick District Council, Warwickshire County Council, Rugby Council, Warwick Manufacturing Group at University of Warwick, Coventry University and the Manufacturing Technology Centre.
The project claims to be the only site in the UK with approved plans for a large-scale battery production facility with capacity for up to 60GWh – enough to power 600,000 electric vehicles and benefiting significant incentives associated with investment zone status.
With the West Midlands Gigafactory at its anchor tenant, the ambitious project, designed to foster world-leading collaborations between industry, major academic institutions and stakeholders to drive the UK’s ambitions in leading the transition to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future, has unveiled plans to create an end-to-end electrification and clean energy ecosystem at its Greenpower Park campus in Coventry.
The Greenpower Park campus will support the development of new businesses and manufacturing facilities with a package of incentives, combining investment zone status, approved planning permission and a significant regional incentives package to kick start development.
With a strategic focus on electrification technology development and manufacturing, the centre aims to attract an unprecedented inward investment of £2.5 billion – creating 6,000 highly skilled jobs and placing the UK at the forefront of critical clean energy technologies. The Council claims that the site is already attracting keen interest, with a number of Asian battery manufacturers actively considering moving to the site.
Capitalising on a future workforce of over 210,000 local students enrolled in relevant degrees and vocational courses to meet the electrification sector’s needs, the project’s backers believe that Greenpower Park’s launch will prove a pivotal moment in the UK’s transition to an electrified economy, as well as a significant leap forward in battery technology development and sustainable manufacturing practices.
The Coventry Telegraph has reported that Eve Energy, a Chinese battery manufacturer which makes BMW electric vehicle batteries, is interested in investing in the site. This may create policy issues for the UK Government.
The website for the development is here.