The founder of Australia’s only lithium-ion battery maker says a $523 million “battery breakthrough” budget allocation for manufacturing will help underwrite a boom in critical minerals.

Newcastle-based Energy Renaissance imports electrochemical cells for its high-end batteries, which sell to defence and remote microgrids and must meet strict cybersecurity and resilience standards. But bringing the making of the cells to Australia would increase local content to 100 per cent from 50 per cent-70 per cent.