Upscaling LiFePO4 battery production for Bolivia

"A large proportion of the Bolivian population live off the electricity grid. This proposal aims to aid the Bolivian company Yacimentos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB), and the local academic communities, to produce low cost batteries to combine with solar panels to provide electricity for up to 250,000 families suffering from energy poverty, energy poverty disproportionally affecting women and children.

This project will begin to address the challenge of upscaling the manufacture of battery materials by focusing on translating the UK's expertise in these areas to Bolivia. The feasibility study will identify the areas of principal scientific need and propose mechanisms for filling these gaps over the medium term through knowledge exchange with the UK. Proposed synthesis methods will be trialled and full-cell testing of lithium-iron phosphate batteries will be performed at the University of Cambridge and the Cambridge-based SME CB2Tech.

The proposal will facilitate an exchange of UK and Bolivian experts (the UK experts coming from the British Geographical Society and Cambridge) in lithium battery raw materials and technology. Even without further intervention, this study and pilot is expected to accelerate the path to producing batteries for the target number of communities within 24 months, removing the need for research and practice that Bolivian experts would otherwise undertake without access to UK knowledge."