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Northvolt has announced plans to establish a battery gigafactory in Heide, Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. With a potential annual production capacity of 60 GWh, Northvolt Drei will provide the European market with a supply of sustainably produced lithium-ion batteries, sufficient for approximately one million electric vehicles.

Northvolt Drei will be the Swedish company’s third gigafactory in Europe.

The new gigafactory increases Northvolt’s under-development battery manufacturing capacity to more than 170 GWh.

Expected to produce its first batteries in 2025 and create some 3,000 new jobs, Northvolt Drei’s central objective is to provide high-performance lithium-ion batteries, produced with the smallest environmental footprint in continental Europe.

Heide in Schleswig-Holstein is home to Germany’s cleanest energy grid, which features a surplus of electricity generated by onshore and offshore wind power and bolstered by clean energy delivered through grid interconnections with Denmark and Norway.

Alongside battery production, Northvolt Drei will target an on-site battery recycling plant that will ensure efficient reuse of by-products from the production process and provide a sustainable solution for end-of-life electric vehicle batteries recovered from markets. Europeans.

Peter Carlsson, co-founder and CEO of Northvolt, said: “We are delighted to announce Northvolt Drei, a project which fits perfectly into a promising future group of clean technology companies emerging in northern Germany and advances Europe’s transition to sustainable development. society in which Germany plays a crucial role.

He adds: “How we produce a battery cell is important. If you use coal in your production you put a fair amount of CO2 into your battery, but if we use clean energy we can build a very durable product. Our philosophy is that new energy-intensive industries, such as battery manufacturing, should be established in actual geographic proximity to where clean energy is produced.

Christofer Haux, Acting CEO of Northvolt Drei, comments: “We look forward to engaging with the communities and authorities of Schleswig-Holstein to ensure that Northvolt Drei is developed in a transparent and collaborative way that makes the most of the many opportunities that the project represents for the region.”

To date, Northvolt has secured more than $50 billion in contracts from key customers, including BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar, to support its plans, which include establishing recycling capabilities to enable 50% of all its raw material requirements must come from recycled batteries by 2030.