Green light for Northvolt’s battery factory

The company says in a press release that ground preparations on the factory site, which marks the initial step of the construction phase, will begin on June 8. As previously reported, the factory will be built in the municipality of Skellefteå in the north of Sweden. The environmental permit, which covers both construction and operation, was granted by the Land and Environment Court in Umeå. The permit was issued for the first section of the factory that will be completed in 2020 and produce eight GWh cell capacity annually. The full factory will be ready in 2023 and produce at least 32 GWh annually when it reaches full-scale capacity. “Today marks another major milestone for Northvolt and the battery value chain that is starting to take shape in Europe. We will start construction in Skellefteå tomorrow, which means that we are well-positioned to keep our timeline,” said Peter Carlsson, CEO and Co-Founder, Northvolt, in the press release. The first phase of the construction – which is mainly the ground preparations – is estimated to be completed during the second half of 2019 and is financed within the current funding. Northvolt has initiated a process to support the funding required for investments in buildings, materials and equipment that will take place in the next phase until the first part of the factory is completed in late 2020. Earlier this year, April to be precise, Northvolt broke ground on the construction of Northvolt Labs located in Västerås outside of Stockholm. This is the company’s scale-up line and research facility used to develop, test and industrialise lithium-ion battery cells before large-scale production. It will start production in 2019.