Monday 21 March 2022

Northvolt to build its third battery gigafactory in northern Germany

Northvolt has announced plans to build its third gigafactory for lithium-ion batteries in northern Germany.

The plant in Heide is expected to have an annual production capacity of 60GWh, with the batteries to be supplied to the European market, enough for around one million electric vehicles (EVs).

The gigafactory, which will employ around 3,000 people and produce its first batteries in late 2025, boosts Northvolt's pipeline of battery manufacturing capacity under development to more than 170GWh.

The location of the plant in the state of Schleswig-Holstein will enable the company to tap into the area's energy grid, which is said to be the “cleanest energy grid in Germany”.

Northvolt describes it as being “characterised by a surplus of electricity generated by onshore and offshore wind power and reinforced by clean energy provided through grid interconnections to Denmark and Norway”.

Peter Carlsson, Co-Founder and CEO of Northvolt said: “We’re excited to announce Northvolt Drei – a project which fits well into a promising future cluster of clean technology ventures emerging in northern Germany and advances the wider European transition towards a sustainable society within which Germany plays a crucial role.

“It matters how we produce a battery cell. If you use coal in your production, you embed a fair amount of CO2 into your battery but if we use clean energy, we can build a very sustainable product. Our philosophy is that new energy-intensive industries, such as battery manufacturing, should be established in actual geographical proximity to where the clean energy is produced.”