Not just Northvolt: Germany, France and Italy receive the approval for state aid
The EU Commission has authorized state aid of 902 million euros to Northvolt for the construction of a battery factory in Germany. The subsidy – they say from Brussels – serves to avoid the diversion of investments to the United States. Italy and France also get the approval for the incentives
The European Commission today approved German state aid to Northvolt to build an electric vehicle battery factory in Germany.
HOW MUCH IS THE INVESTMENT WORTH
The subsidy is worth 902 million euros in total, divided between a direct grant of 700 million and a guarantee of 202 million. The investment amounts to a total of 4.5 billion euros.
THE EU PROTECTS ITSELF FROM AMERICAN WRATH
According to the European Commission, in the absence of state aid, the Swedish startup would have invested in the United States in order to benefit from the tax credits offered by the Inflation Reduction Act , the law to stimulate the American manufacturing of "clean technologies" with a of 369 billion dollars. The German factory, however – as Brussels claims – will contribute to the energy transition of the European Union, which has one of its foundations in electric mobility.
In a statement , European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that "this 902 million euro German measure is the first individual aid approved to prevent an investment from being diverted outside of Europe."
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE NORTHVOLT FACTORY IN GERMANY
The Northvolt plant will be built in Heide, a city in northern Germany, and will have an annual capacity of 60 gigawatt hours, enough to power – depending on the size of the battery – between 800,000 and one million electric cars every year. It is estimated that production will begin in 2026 and reach full capacity in 2029. Approximately three thousand jobs are expected to be created.
WHO SUPPORTS NORTHVOLT
Northvolt's investors include the German car manufacturer Volkswagen, the US investment firm BlackRock and the US investment bank Goldman Sachs.
INNOVATION FOR SODIUM BATTERIES
Last November Northvolt announced that it had developed a type of sodium ion battery (a technology different from the dominant lithium ion one, but similar) that does not contain lithium, cobalt or nickel: it was an interesting announcement, because the mining and refining of these three metals is controlled by China . Beijing is also the world's largest producer of lithium batteries.
Sodium batteries do not have the same density as lithium ones (they do not store the same amount of energy in the same space, that is) and are therefore less suitable for use in electric vehicles due to their larger size; instead, they seem to be more suitable for energy storage due to their lower cost and better performance at high and low temperatures.
Northvolt's sodium-ion battery has an energy density of 160 watt-hours per kilo, not too far off that of lithium batteries used for storage (180 Wh per kilo).
THE EU ALSO AUTHORIZES FRENCH SUBSIDIES
In addition to the German subsidy, the European Commission also authorized the French program of 2.9 billion euros in state aid for the manufacturing of clean technologies: batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps and related basic and intermediate materials.
The measure is part of the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework, which since last March has allowed EU member states to define simpler programs to support so-called net-zero technologies. So far, Germany and France have mainly benefited from the relaxation of public aid rules, while governments with lower spending capacity ( including Italy ) have been left behind.
At the end of December, the Commission approved Italy's 17.7 billion aid plan for the development of a centralized system for the storage of renewable energy.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/northvolt-germania-aiuti-di-stato/ on Mon, 08 Jan 2024 15:07:35 +0000.