Financed by the European Investment Bank, it will be built in Skellefteå, Sweden, and at full capacity will produce 32 gigawatt-hours per year. And it will power thousands of electric cars.
Europe's largest lithium battery factory will be built in Västerås, in northern Sweden. Financed with €52.5 million by the European Investment Bank (EIB), it will be built and operated by Swedish company Northvolt and at full capacity will be able to produce 32 gigawatt-hours of capacity per year, effectively becoming the European rival to Elon Musk's Gigafactory.
The company also announces that a pilot plant and a research centre employing between 300 and 400 people will be built in Västerås. "Europe is moving quickly towards electrification," said Peter Carlsson, chief executive of Northvolt. "Northvolt's goal is to build the world's greenest battery and thereby enable the transition (from combustion to electric engines, ed.). With the support of the European Investment Bank and the European Union, we are now one step closer to creating a competitive European value chain in battery manufacturing." The European Gigafactory, meanwhile, will employ around 2,500 people.
Following the launch of the European Battery Alliance last October in Brussels — which was attended by companies including Basf, Renault and Daimler — on 12 February the European Commission hosted a second meeting that gave the definitive green light to the creation of an industrial supply chain for the production of lithium batteries within European borders. The primary objective will be to power thousands of new electric vehicles and to supply storage systems to renewable energy producers.
"The estimated potential of this market in Europe is enormous: from 2025 onwards, it could reach €250 billion per year, as our demand for cells is expected to rise to 200 GWh at European level, and to 600 GWh globally," said Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, responsible for the Energy Union, in a statement.
This is not the only project currently being defined and developed. South Korean company Lg Chem recently announced its intention to build a battery factory in Wrocław, a few hundred kilometres from Warsaw, with a capacity of 100,000 batteries for electric vehicles per year. The choice of Poland, explains Chang-Beom Kang, Vice President of Lg Chem, was made because it is considered "the most competitive location for manufacturing and for meeting the needs of European and global car manufacturers." In short, to meet German demand. Tesla also appears to be looking to invest in Europe in the construction of a Gigafactory, similar to the one already operating in Nevada. Portugal, Sweden and France are the possible locations.
