The Future Battery Industries CRC is launching their first scene-setting project report in collaboration with the Perth USAsia Centre, UWA and the Minerals Research Institute of WA.

The geography of global supply chains is a complex and important issue for Australian businesses seeking to move downstream in battery industries.

The Perth USAsia Centre report The governance of battery value chains: Security, Sustainability and Australian Policy Options, investigates existing battery value chain governance, security and sustainability, and identify economic opportunities for Australia within that framework.  

It focuses on how Australia can enhance its role in the global battery industry by reviewing the industrial geography of the industry, and the role of mineral and materials production in shaping contemporary value chains. 

It also considers the governance challenges facing battery production, including political and economic risks to supply security alongside social and environmental difficulties in achieving sustainability, from which governments and industry can consider policy and investment options respectively to grow Australia’s participation.

Advanced battery technology will become more important as Australia invests in renewable energy storage in its power grids.  

This reinforces the importance of Australian industry being as integrated as possible into the battery supply chain, which in turn improves the country’s resilience to future global-scale disruptions.

The finding of the scene-setting research project will also be utilised to inform and shape the scope of one of the FBICRC’s flagship research project around ethically sourced, high-grade battery material provenance authentication for the next generation battery supply market, and our research agenda more broadly.

A short interview with Research Director Dr Jeffrey Wilson can be viewed here.

Two further scene setting projects commissioned by FBICRC - The feasibility of a Western Australian cathode precursor industry and The state of play of Australian battery industries in 2019, will be available soon.  

These scene setting projects will provide direction and inform the investment by the CRC and its participants in research and development activities which can grow Australia’s battery industries.