China’s leading battery producer, Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) , established a battery factory featuring net-zero carbon emission in Yibin, Sichuan Province, as reported by PR Newswire on March 25. The plant has been granted the PAS 2060 certification on carbon neutrality from Swiss inspection, verification, and testing service provider SGS, making it the world’s first zero-carbon factory in the new energy industry. According to the Chinese company, it aims for carbon neutrality for all its ten production bases across the world with its experience in the Yibin factory, in a move to build a sustainable industry ecosystem.

The certificated zero-carbon factory benefits from its location which has abundant hydropower resources. Over 80% of the power consumption of the factory comes from hydropower, reducing around 400,000 tons of carbon emissions per year. Aside from that, the plant widely applies unmanned logistics vehicles and electric forklifts throughout the manufacturing procedure, which enables zero-carbon operation in transport and warehousing within the factory. Last October, CATL also announced it will invest USD5bn in building a new factory specifically designed for battery recycling in China’s Hubei Province. It plans to extract cobalt and lithium from scraped batteries of electric vehicles (EVs), aiming to realize carbon neutrality throughout the life circle of batteries.

Sources:

https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/catl-s-sichuan-plant-certified-as-world-s-first-zero-carbon-factory-in-new-energy-industry-837516701.html

https://pandaily.com/catl-to-establish-first-zero-carbon-battery-plant/https://www.electrive.com/2021/10/12/catl-to-build-recycling-plant-in-china/