Plans to place Britain at the centre of the accelerating green industrial revolution took a step forward today with the launch of Greenpower Park – the UK Centre of Electrification and Clean Energy, located in Coventry.
With a battery-supplying West Midlands gigafactory as its intended anchor tenant, the venture is designed to foster world-leading collaboration between industry, academic institutions and investors.
Backers say the Greenpower Park campus will support the development of businesses and factories involved in low-carbon manufacturing & research. Tax breaks linked to the area’s investment zone status, are being offered as inducements.
Coventry’s planners believe setting up a cluster of high-tech, low carbon manufacturing could attract as much as £2.5Bn of private capital. They have granted outline planning approval for a facility capable of producing 60GWh devices every year, enough to power 600,000 electric vehicles.
Chinese battery maker EVE Energy, supplier to BMW & other car makers, is the latest technology firm reportedly in late stage discussions with Whitehall ministers to confirm a tenancy, reportedly to sealed with its £1.2bn investment. A battery plant on the West Midlands site would be Britain’s biggest, larger than equivalent plants in Sunderland or earmarked for Somerset.
Civic leaders cite “active endorsement” from nine local universities. Those institutions stand ready to supply, they say, an emerging workforce of over 210,000 local students enrolled in relevant degrees and vocational courses.
Coventry council’s Jim O’Boyle, the city’s cabinet lead for regeneration and climate change, hailed the plans as “a decisive stride towards fortifying Britain’s position as a global leader in electrification innovation”.
“The unveiling of Greenpower Park with the West Midlands Gigafactory marks a transformative moment for the nation’s Net Zero landscape,” he said.
“This ambitious initiative is a clarion call to the world that the UK is open for business, ready to lead the charge in the green industrial revolution”, councillor O’Boyle added.
With its strategic location, unprecedented financial support, academic partnerships, a ready-made skilled workforce, and oven-ready plans to build Britain’s biggest gigafactory, Greenpower Park is poised to become the cornerstone of the UK’s electrified future, driving forward our commitment to innovation, sustainability, and economic growth.”
