The Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt, which is flirting with a location in the Schleswig-Holstein Heath, says it is considering building two factories at the same time. A spokesman for the company confirmed a report by the news agency on Friday Bloomberg
, a parallel construction of two locations is possible. But nothing has been decided yet.
The plans involve building a factory in North America and in Heide, Schleswig-Holstein. Previously, doubts had arisen as to whether Northvolt could postpone the already planned construction in Heide in favor of a location in North America.
The US subsidy program Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the background to the struggle for the location of the battery cell factory for the automotive industry worth more than four billion euros. After Northvolt had initially settled on Heide in Schleswig-Holstein, Northvolt boss Peter Carlsson (52) had this because of the new situation in the USA questioned again.
However, Northvolt continued with the preparations in Heide. According to initial plans, one million batteries are to be produced there every year with around 3,000 employees.
A possible reason for the decision to consider two locations may be the prospect of funding, which is not only available in the USA but also in Germany. On Thursday, Northvolt announced that the federal government and the state government of Schleswig-Holstein were ready to support the construction of a battery cell factory in Heide. However, the possible funding is still subject to approval by the European Commission.
According to the announcement, the approvals from the responsible municipalities of Lohe Rickelshof and Norderwöhrden are entering the next phase – “an important milestone on the way to the start of construction,” writes Northvolt. The Northvolt spokesman also added that the municipal councils responsible for Heide had approved a draft development plan for a possible system. This cleared a major bureaucratic hurdle.
“With the next steps at Northvolt, Germany can look forward to one of the most important lighthouse projects in the energy and transport transition, which will create thousands of green tech jobs,” the company quoted Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (53). Habeck had Northvolt in early February Visited Sweden, but the decision to invest in Heide initially remained in limbo.