Judian builds solid-state battery factory in Ganzhou
A new solid-state battery factory is being built in China. Jiangxi Judian New Energy Technology, a battery manufacturer little known in the West, has announced the start of construction of a plant in Ganzhou in China’s Jiangxi province.
Once fully operational, the new plant is expected to have an annual capacity of ten gigawatt hours of solid-state battery cells and packs for electric vehicles and stationary applications. The project will have a total investment of ten billion yuan (about 1.26 billion euros). Construction will take place in two phases. For the first phase, an annual capacity of 4 GWh is planned – 2 GWh each for cells and packs. There is no information on the timetable so far.
Technical details about Judian’s solid-state batteries are also not yet known. Thus, it cannot yet be said with certainty whether these are actually solid-state batteries with solid electrolyte or semi-solid-state cells, whose semi-solid electrolytes are usually more jelly-like. These often offer slightly better properties than conventional lithium-ion cells with liquid electrolyte, but nowhere near the energy density that would be possible with a solid electrolyte with an anode of metallic lithium. On the other hand, semi-solid-state cells are much easier to produce, which is why they are the more common “solid-state” cells at the moment – the terms are not protected and can therefore be used for marketing in a kind of grey area.
From images published by the company, it is clear that the ground-breaking ceremony has already taken place. Ganzhou is located inland in Jiangxi province and is not to be confused with the port city of Guangzhou near Hong Kong. The region around Ganzhou has a population of nearly nine million, according to Wikipedia, with 1.4 million people living in the core city, according to 2018 figures.
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