Norweigian energy storage solutions company Corvus Energy on Wednesday said it is moving forward with plans to invest in its Canadian operations by increasing manufacturing capacity at its Richmond, B.C. facility.
Corvus Energy has started planning to branch out into maritime battery manufacturing facilities in both Bergen, Norway and Richmond, B.C., Canada since 2018, it says.
In Q4 2019, the firm began producing energy storage systems (ESS) at a new automated battery factory in Bergen. Further, Corvus Energy has recently signed a contract for investment in new production line equipment in the Richmond, B.C. plant, it said.
“With anticipated growth in the market, increased capacity and production flexibility are crucial to keeping up with customer demand,” said Geir Bjørkeli, Chief Executive Officer of Corvus Energy. The Canadian facility will begin producing our newest multi-megawatt hour ESS, which we call Blue Whale and expect to be the cornerstone of Corvus’ growth in coming years.
“The market for these enormous battery systems will increase rapidly as cruise ships, large ferries and merchant vessels strive for zero-emissions operation. Some forecasts predict it will be a $1 billion USD market by 2026. Corvus is well positioned to be an innovator and market leader in zero-emissions solutions.”
Corvus expects the total investment in research and development (R&D), plant and equipment is to be over $16 million USD. The R&D carried out in Richmond, B.C. is partly funded by Canada’s National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), it said.
“The state-of-the-art production equipment in Canada will be based upon the same flexible robotic technology used in our highly successful battery factory in Norway,” says Richard Wing, Executive Vice President Engineering and Program Management at Corvus Energy. “Using digital and automated solutions, we establish scalable, high quality cost-efficient production.”
The company says it plans to begin shipping Blue Whale ESS from the Richmond plant in early 2021. It also notes that the two manufacturing facilities will be well positioned to serve all its largest market for maritime batteries: Northern Europe, and the growing North American and Asian markets. It adds that the total capacity from both locations will be in the range of 1,200 MWh per year in five distinct ESS product lines.
