Northvolt granted environmental permit for the first Gigafactory in Europe

The Swedish battery manufacturer, Northvolt, has been granted an environmental permit to develop the first Gigafactory in Europe.

The largest lithium-ion factory on the continent will be located Skellefteå, with labs to be designed for Västerås.

Construction on the factory is expected to launch in the second half of 2019, with the first phase of the facility set to be ready by the end of 2020.

The factory will be ready to produce 8GW of call capacity per annum upon completion of the first phase.

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When construction of the rest of the site is finalised in 2023, the factory’s capacity will rise to 32GW per year.

The firm will focus on R&D in its NorthvoltLab, where it aims to design the world’s greenest battery.

The project has received €10mn (US$12mn) in funding from the German manufacturer, Siemens, which aims to encourage “the digitization of the entire value chain, from the design of the battery cell to production and services.”

“Siemens sees the Northvolt initiative as a reference project for the battery production of the future,” the firm stated.