The European Commission on Monday defended its company's battery designs in the wake of Sweden's massive Northvolt crisis. According to the spokesperson Johanna Bernsel, the initiatives in this direction are successful. – No one has a crystal ball – but he answered the question of whether the European Union will achieve its goals.
Northwalt said on Friday that it needs between $1 billion and $1.2 billion to support the restructuring. He also announced that he intends to sell the energy storage systems plant in Gdańsk, as the Swedish company will no longer operate there. In October, its subsidiary Northvolt Ett Expansion AB filed for bankruptcy.
“No one has a crystal ball”
The European Commission has been involved in supporting 160 battery projects implemented by a large Swedish company. The initiative was called the “European Battery Union”, which was supposed to unite European projects under a single EU umbrella. This allowed for the creation of efficient value chains and the accumulation of financing.
Vice President of the European Commission, Marosh Šefčovič, announced the loan of the European Investment Bank for the construction of the Northvolt gigafactory in Sweden in January of this year, and spoke about the history of success and great hope for the European industry. The European Commission has guaranteed loans to Northvolt in the amount of 313 million dollars.
In turn, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that the goal of the support is that the EU can cover two-thirds of the demand for batteries. When asked whether, despite the North Pole crisis, the target remains valid and is still possible to achieve, the EC spokesman replied: “No one has a crystal ball.”
Adopting a new plan
“All I can say is that remains our priority,” Bernsel said. He added that the new Commission, which is expected to begin work on December 1, will adopt a plan called a “clean industry mandate” within its first 100 days in office.
– The work we have done for the battery, including the battery union, is a success. We were able to implement 30 gigafactory projects, the total production capacity of which will reach 167 GW/h in 2023, the spokesperson said.
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