European lithium-ion gigafactory firm Northvolt has completed construction of its energy storage system (ESS) production facility in Poland and expects to start production by the end of 2023.
The Sweden-headquartered firm announced the completion of construction on Linkedin over the weekend (20 May), saying it is Europe’s largest factory for ESS solutions. The facility will build its ‘Voltainer’ ESS product.
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“The facility is powered solely by electricity from renewable sources. This aligns with our company’s business model, which focuses on using only green energy in all our factories located in Poland, Sweden, and Germany, as well as utilising recycled materials,” said Robert Chryc-Gawrychowski, CEO of Northvolt Poland.
The company is aiming to open the facility and start production by the end of the year. When first announced in late 2021, Northvolt said the plant would open with an initial annual production capacity of 5GWh and a potential future capacity of 12GWh.
It will receive cells from the company’s Swedish flagship gigafactory, Northvolt Ett, and the project received an EU innovation grant of €75 million (US$81 million).
The company has a targeted 2030 production capacity of 150GWh across its gigafactories in Sweden, which started ramping up production over 2022, and Germany. The latter may be delayed with CEO Peter Carlsson saying last year that high energy prices had affected the profitability of the project.
Most of Northvolt’s future offtake is going to the electric vehicle (EV) sector, in contrast to Norway-based peer Freyr which has mostly struck deals with companies in the ESS space. Northvolt did tie up with Fluence, the world’s biggest system integrator, in April 2021 for the two to work together on ESS solutions.
The firm has also opened a recycling facility which started operations last year, in Norway.
Europe has seen a substantial push to set up lithium-ion gigafactories across the continent, but generous tax credit incentives in the US have led companies to pivot across the Atlantic, leaving two thirds of projects at risk of cancellation, delay or downsizing, according to one recent report.