Growing demand for electrical energy storage is producing new transnational economies of battery production, as firms, states and other actors cooperate and compete to capture value from electrical energy storage. The boom in 鈥榞igafactory鈥� construction is well known, but what about the wider geographies that battery production sets in motion? What worlds are being formed through the rise of energy storage in electric vehicles and stationary applications?
In this talk Professor Bridge will unpack some of the emergent geographies of lithium-ion battery manufacturing, from raw material production through to recycling, using a global production networks approach. This will highlight a fundamental tension between globalising supply chains to reduce costs and the strategy of states (like the UK) to 鈥榦nshore鈥� battery supply as part of industrial strategy. He further demonstrates how organisational strategies of vertical integration, and the growing integration of batteries with automobile manufacturing and grid storage, are creating new geographies of battery production all along the value chain. The talk draws on collaborative work as part of UKERC-funded research on the .
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