Britishvolt Chief Strategy Officer Isobel Sheldon OBE joins UK’s Critical Minerals Expert Committee
November 29, 2021
- The Committee was established to ensure the UK has a reliable supply of critical minerals and metals as well as establish an enabling environment for growing the sector in the UK.
- Britishvolt’s mission to accelerate battery R&D capability through collaboration with industry and academia will help one of the Committee’s key objectives to build better understanding of these rapidly growing markets.
- Britishvolt’s Gigaplant in Northumberland aligns with the Government’s stated desire to “level-up” the North East, to protect the UK’s national automotive sector and to put the country at the very centre of the global battery map.
Northumberland, 29/11/2021: Britishvolt, the UK’s foremost investor in battery cell technologies and associated R&D, welcomes the news that its Chief Strategy Officer, Isobel Sheldon OBE, has been selected to be a member of the UK’s Critical Minerals Expert Committee. This is an important group aiming to establish a secure supply of critical materials essential for the transition to a low carbon society.
Sheldon will join the Committee together with a select number of industry and academic experts, including Cornish Lithium CEO Jeremy Wrathall.
“This is an excellent initiative, another sign of the Government’s vision to put the UK on the global battery map, that will truly help the country on its glidepath to a net zero future. I am delighted and honoured to have been selected to be a member. Britishvolt is one of the world’s leading companies developing and manufacturing battery technology as part of the global effort to deliver a better future for all of us. A sustainable future, one where we are weaned off of fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy. There can be no successful energy transition without sustainable, responsibly manufactured, low-carbon batteries. These batteries are reliant on some of the critical minerals that will be discussed on the Committee.”
Isobel Sheldon OBE, Chief Strategy Officer Britishvolt
The formation of the Committee is a key element of the UK Government’s Net Zero Strategy (published on 19 October 2021 online) and has been established by the Right Honourable Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”).
The Committee is the first of its kind in the UK, and will provide independent advice to government on the scope and content of a critical minerals strategy. The Committee will also define and publish an updated list of these minerals to guide government investment decisions.
The resulting UK Critical Minerals Strategy will be published in 2022, setting out the UK’s approach to securing the technology critical minerals and metals aimed at:
- Ensuring the UK has a reliable supply of critical minerals and metals;
- Establishing an enabling environment for growing the sector in the UK;
- Showing leadership through working bilaterally and multilaterally to support work on international standards to extend and strengthen the circular economy in technology-critical minerals;
- Ensuring work to build critical mineral supply chain resilience supports the UK’s international development priorities;
- Using the UK’s R&D resources to build a better understanding of markets and prices to help mitigate the impact of supply shocks and demand spikes, and to enable better foresight and early intervention; and
- Work with UK industry (including SMEs) to consider how the private and public sectors can better share risks to promote investment and drive innovation at all levels.
Sheldon is a seasoned battery industry professional. Having amassed nearly 20 years of lithium-ion battery industry experience, she joins the company from the Government-backed UKBIC where she served as Director of Business Development. Prior to this, she held senior leadership positions within global companies, recently serving as Engineering and Technology Director at Johnson Matthey Battery Systems.
As one of the first pioneers to integrate lithium-ion batteries in road vehicles, she has developed a wealth of knowledge – from cell technology, cell manufacturing chemistries and system integration, to how the global industry and supply chains works.
Through this strategy, the UK government will seek to support the engagement of the UK’s mining sector in new and existing markets, facilitating investment and collaboration in extraction and processing opportunities.
Britishvolt is on target to responsibly manufacture some of the world’s most sustainable, low carbon battery cells on the site of the former Blyth Power Station coal stocking yard located in Cambois, Northumberland.The development is a major boost for Northumberland, and indeed the country, and will bring around 3,000 direct highly-skilled jobs and another 5,000+ in the associated supply chains.
Construction started on the site on September 6 2021, following a unanimous planning decision approval earlier in the year. The project will be built in phases, to keep up with technology advancements, and will have a total capacity of over 30GWh by the end of the decade onwards.
Once at full capacity, the Gigaplant will have a production capability equating to approximately enough cells for over 300,000 electric vehicle battery packs per year, intended primarily for the automotive industry.
It will be the first large full cycle Gigaplant in the UK.
Notes to Editors
For more information please contact:
Ben Kilbey, Britishvolt’s Chief Communications Officer:
+44 7305 032904
Safe Harbour.
Certain statements in this press release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectation intended to qualify for the ‘safe harbor’ under the U.S. Private Securities Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements.
The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, competition including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, equipment procurement, wage increases, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time contracts or time and material construction contracts, customer concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage international operations, reduced demand, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages related to battery service agreements, the success of the companies in which Britishvolt has made strategic partnerships, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies and unauthorised use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. In addition, please note any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release.
