Thai renewable energy company Energy Absolute is planning to develop a lithium-ion battery plant to rival Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada, Bloomberg reports.
The factory, worth approximately $2.9 billion, will be built in one of four possible locations in Asia. Amorn Sapthaweekul (pictured), the company’s deputy chief executive officer, has said the company “would prefer to have the plant in Thailand” but without “clear government policy” they were also considering three other sites in Asia.
Energy Absolute will invest 3 billion baht ($88 million) in the initial phase of the project, which would consist of production capacity of 1GWh lithium-ion batteries. The factory will be expected to scale up to 50GWh a year by 2020 at a total investment of 100 billion baht ($2.9 billion), although the exact pace of expansion will depend on demand, said Sapthaweekul.
The investment decision will be finalised around the end of the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter, Sapthaweekul added. The first phase is projected to start in 2018.
“Given its sound financial status with cash inflows of at least 6 billion baht ($176 million) annually, it would be able to materialize the first phase,” Thanatphat Suksrichavalit, a Bangkok-based analyst at Phillip Securities, told Bloomberg. “Funding isn’t an issue. The first phase is to test market demand.”
London-based Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) said the project could make Thailand “the largest centre for lithium-ion battery production after China”.
“A number of challenges need to be overcome if Energy Absolute is to achieve the 50GWh/year level, such as technical competitiveness, financing, and stability of demand,” said I-Chun Hsiao, a Tokyo-based analyst at BNEF.
Energy Absolute has gained some experience in the energy storage field through its 35.2% stake in Amita Technologies, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of lithium-ion and polymer batteries.
Capacity at the company’s renewable power plants will increase to 404MW this year and climb to 664MW next year, Sapthaweekul predicted.