On the sidelines of the second high-level meeting of the European Battery Alliance in Brussels on Monday 12 February (see EUROPE 11959), the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced that its Board of Directors had, on 6 February, approved financing of €52.5 million for the construction and operation by the Swedish company Northvolt of a first-of-a-kind demonstration plant in Västerås, Sweden, for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries.
This plant, backed by InnovFin – EU finance for energy demonstration projects, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 financial instruments – will serve to demonstrate the commercial viability of the concept and to qualify and industrialise products together with Northvolt customers. The batteries produced are for use in transport, stationary storage, and industrial and consumer applications.
The demonstration site will include a research facility and will employ between 300 and 400 people. The launch of the demonstration plant is a key step towards the establishment of Northvolt’s large-scale lithium-ion battery factory in Skellefteå, eventually targeting a production of 32 GWh worth of battery capacity annually and employing between 2,000 and 2,500 people.
Northvolt was founded in 2016 with the mission to build the world’s greenest battery, with a minimal carbon footprint and the highest ambitions for recycling, to enable the European transition to renewable energy, the EIB states. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)