Wednesday, December 4, 2024
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Britishvolt’s Kilbey joins editorial board of Transport + Energy

Ben Kilbey, the Head of Communications at UK battery technology firm Britishvolt, has joined Transport + Energy’s editorial advisory board.

Ben is in overall charge of communications at Britishvolt, on track to deliver its first battery Gigaplant in the UK. He is passionate about the race to zero and decarbonisation of society and wants to do everything within his power to connect and collaborate towards a sustainable future. For everyone.

Ben has been in the media and communications industry for over 20 years. His career spans travel writing to financial publications, including the FT and The Guardian. Ben spent 13 years as a market intelligence reporter/relationship manager at S&P Global where he gained expert knowledge of the metals industry and also became a commentator on batteries and the energy transition.

It has been a busy week for Britishvolt. On Tuesday (17 August), the company announced it had entered into a long-term strategic partnership for the supply of responsibly sourced cobalt with the world’s largest industrial producer and one of the largest recyclers, Glencore. And on Thursday (19 August), Britishvolt confirmed that it was part of a consortium of seven UK-based organisations which has signed a memorandum of understanding to combine ambitions to develop world-leading prototype solid-state battery technology, targeting automotive applications

Speaking about joining the board, Ben said: “I am very much looking forward to joining the editorial board and leveraging my content knowledge and my communications expertise. What Alec has done here is nothing short of brilliant. He’s capturing the spirit of the swiftness in action required by all of us to have any real chance in the race to zero. This is a combined, collaborative effort by humankind where all of us has to step up and do our bit. As Britishvolt’s excellent social values manager said to me me when she joined; this is about doing the right thing. By society, by the country, indeed the right thing by the planet. I’m doing the right thing joining the editorial board and the experts that sit on it. Collectively we’ll all do the right thing to help humanity on a glide path to a sustainable future.

Transport + Energy Editorial Director Alec Peachey said: “Having Ben from Britishvolt join the editorial board is a real coup. Once at full capacity, Britishvolt’s Gigaplant will have a production capability equating to approximately enough cells for around 300,000 electric vehicle battery packs per year, intended primarily for the automotive industry. The company will not only play a key role in kick starting manufacturing in Northumberland, but will sit at the heart of the journey to electrification and net zero in the UK. Having Ben join the editorial board adds further credibility to an already strong group which will be working together to try and accelerate change. We will also be announcing further additions over the next two to three weeks so please keep an eye out for further exciting news on this front.”

Ben joins the following representatives on the editorial board: Gill Nowell, Director, EVA England; Philip New, Chair of Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce and CEO of Energy Systems Catapult; Jacob Roberts, Transport Policy Manager at REA (The Association for Renewable Energy & Clean Technology); Jonathan Murray, Policy and Operations Director at Zemo Partnership; Jeremy Yapp, Head of Flexible Energy Systems at BEAMA; Paul Kirby, electric van expert and former head of LCV and EV strategy at Vanarama; Ross Easton, Director of External Affairs at Energy Networks Association; Dr Anthony Velazquez, Head of Environment and Decarbonisation at TRL (Transport Research Laboratory); Sara Sloman, Head of Future Mobility Partnerships, Elmtronics; Dr Russell Fowler, Senior Project Manager – Decarbonisation of Transport, National Grid; Jason Torrance, Assistant Executive Director, UK100.

You can find out more information about the background of our editorial board members here.

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