Nevadic, an energy and power company in partnership with AceOn (Lead), DZP Technologies, University of Wolverhampton – all UK-based organisations, has secured a £1 million Grant from Innovate UK, a research and innovation agency of the UK Government.
The award is earmarked towards part-funding a £1.5 million Project for the accelerated development and commercialization of the AceOn’s innovative Sodium-ion Battery (SIBs)-based Mobile Solar Energy Storage Unit, starting with Nigeria as the country for commercial pilot deployment with outlook for expansion into Sub-saharan Africa and rest of the world. The SIBs for the mobile solar energy storage unit shall be supplied by Sheffield-based Faradion Limited.
Nevadic and partners were among the 5 successful entities out of a total of 126 global competitors that participated in the Energy Catalyst Round 8 Clean Energy Access-Industrial Research competition organized and funded by Innovate UK.
The R & D project work is scheduled to last for 2 years commencing in October this year. While leveraging on the R & D work to be shepherded by the trio of British-born Mark Thompson (MD, AceOn), UK-based Dr. Zlatka Stoeva (Founder, DZP Technologies) and Nigerian-born Professor Ndy Ekere (University of Wolverhampton), the CEO of Nevadic Limited, Engr. Dave Nwosu highlighted that Nevadic will anchor the commercialisation of the AceOn’s Sodium-ion Battery (SIBs)-based Mobile Solar Energy Storage Unit in Nigeria.
Over 50 rural communities including 45,090 households and 3,682 small businesses are lined up to benefit from the rollout of the product over the initial 10 years of commercialisation. Green-tech Nigerian jobs are bound to be created with a minimum of 36,820 Nigerians being gainfully employed and sustaining over 110,460 direct dependants while delivering circa 254 GWh of low-cost electricity to the impacted communities. This projected outcome is in line with the Nigerian federal government’s plan to rapidly electrify the country to bridge the energy poverty gap by 2033 and sustain the transition to clean renewable energy.
Nevadic projects that the multiplier effect of this AceOn-led innovative rollout of SIB mobile energy storage solution on the Nigerian economy will be immense and multi-faceted as several domesticated manufacturing and assembly capacities in the renewable energy space will be birthed including but not limited to solar panels, inverters, charge controllers and energy-saving light bulbs.
Already, Nevadic has developed a blueprint for setting up a solar panel manufacturing plant in Nigeria with 150MW/year throughput production capacity to leverage on the several emerging opportunities the Innovate UK grant to Nevadic and partners will trigger in Nigeria.
Sodium-ion battery technology is a promising substitute for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and lead-acid batteries (LABs) given the numerous advantages it holds. Compared to LIBs, SIBs are known to lend themselves to safer transport and storage while being maintained in full discharge state, thereby eliminating risk of explosion and fire outbreak. They are also cheaper with abundant and easily sourced raw materials.
Placed side by side with LABs, SIBs have better energy and power densities over LABs while eliminating the hazards of polluting the environment during accidental or deliberate content release as the case is with LABs.
For further information on Nevadic, please visit www.nevadicsolar.com | www.nevadic.com
