The Italvolt odyssey continues: will it now build the gigafactory in Termini Imerese?
From Piedmont to Sicily. It seemed that Italvolt, the first Italian gigafactory of 3.5 billion euro batteries for electric cars, had found a home in Ivrea, instead it is ready to pack up in Termini Imerese. Here are the details
Given how the Silk-Faw epic ended (according to Il Resto del Carlino , the Sino-American alliance will also have to deal with an investigation by the Guardia di Finanza of Reggio Emilia which is allegedly investigating for attempted aggravated fraud against the State against of the joint venture), it is easy to be hesitant about the Italvolt odyssey. Because in both cases we are talking about projects that have been underway for years, widely advertised and never implemented so far. It has been known for some time that Italvolt's gigafactory was bogged down, having suffered several slowdowns that the same reality had initially attributed to the sudden turnover at Palazzo Chigi last summer. But only recently has the entrepreneur behind the project, Lars-Eyvind Carlstrom , born in 1965, born in Lulea, Sweden's second largest city in terms of inhabitants (just over 50,000), on the outskirts of Lapland, hinted at his doubts about the opportunity to continue the project. And now it seems that the Swede behind Italvolt is aiming for the former Blutec plant in Termini Imerese. But let's go in order.
WHY DON'T LIKE PIEDMONT ANYMORE
The company, operational since 2021, twinned with Britishvolt with which Carlstrom was however forced to terminate relations in order not to hinder fundraising in England following the controversy over a conviction for tax evasion which had cost him 10 thousand euros in the nineties fine and 60 hours of social services in Sweden, intends to produce electric batteries. And he wants to do it in Italy.
At first, the 3.5 billion euro project to build the factory concerned the former Olivetti area in Ivrea on the outskirts of Turin. And it seemed almost done: the PA had been prompt in acknowledging the urgency of the situation, the agreement with Prelios had also been signed, but suddenly nothing more was heard. Partnership announcements followed but silence fell around Ivrea. Until Carlstrom explained his reasons.
«In that area – the manager told La Stampa a few months ago – there is a big problem concerning the connection to the electricity grid of the plants. We need to make sure the site can accommodate the functionality we need, a factory like ours consumes an enormous amount of energy, we estimate up to 1% of all electricity available in Italy, so the infrastructure must be up to date. 'height. But we find ourselves in a situation in which the connection to the grid could take up to four years of work to be achieved: we do not have all this time because according to our plans, production must start in 2025. We are working to understand if it is Is it possible to speed things up and what can we do but we have not renewed the agreement with Prelios: consequently we no longer have exclusive rights on the site».
ITALVOLT PACKING UP AND MOVING TO TERMINI IMERESE?
The site chosen by the Swede is from a completely different part of the country. The former Blutec has been in administration for four years. The Ukrainian entrepreneur Sergey Shapran has already set his sights on that area to build a factory for the production of aluminum, investing 50 million of his own capital in the initial phase and absorbing at least 300 workers.
This is because it is known that the extraordinary commissioners are preparing the tender for the assignment of the industrial area. The publication will in all likelihood take place following the convening of the table, scheduled for the first days of April, at the Ministry for Enterprise and Made in Italy which should also give the green light to the program agreement for the complex industrial area of Termini Imerese.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/continua-lodissea-italvolt-ora-realizzera-la-gigafactory-a-termini-imerese/ on Wed, 15 Mar 2023 14:40:13 +0000.