Northvolt: Northvolt- the greenest battery factory in the world

Description:

• Northvolt’s mission is to build the world’s greenest battery with a minimal carbon footprint and the highest ambitions for recycling, to enable the European transition to renewable energy. Northvolt wants to defeat climate change without compromising with important eco-systems, over usage of natural resources or pollution of water and land. This includes sourcing of raw materials, transportation of goods, and how the factory is run. It also means that it is necessary to foresee and prepare for the next generation’s environmental concerns and lead the change towards sustainability.

What is the impact of your case:

• The world is facing a growing consciousness of the urgency to mitigate the effects of climate change and this is accelerating the world’s transition to becoming a fossil fuel free society. But to fully enable the transition, brand new solutions within e-mobility, energy storage and industry processing need to be brought to the market and implemented at a scale and speed that the world has not seen before. The production at Northvolt will by itself stand for 32 GWh which is equivalent of half a million electric cars per year.
• Northvolt will also have a great impact on the region where it is built, in terms of business development and the creation of many job opportunities in the region, contributing to a socioeconomical development.

How is your case innovative:

• To fully enable the transition, brand new solutions within e-mobility, energy storage and industry processing need to be brought to the market and implemented at a scale and speed that the world has not seen before.
• Northvolt is building the next generation lithium-ion battery factory with a new concept focusing on scale, vertical integration and highly controlled manufacturing. The execution is fundamentally different compared to current battery production facilities. Northvolt is dedicated to creating a circular system and have the highest ambitions for life cycle management. Sustainability in material flows can only be ensured by careful and industrialised recycling of elements. In a circular economy, each battery cell should find its way back to the production line in one way or the other. By dismantling and recycling raw materials on elementary level, Northvolt will take care of the resources and make sure they are prepared to the quality level of refined material and safe to reintroduce in the production line. The approach covers cradle to grave. Building the factory in north Sweden, given its carbon free power base, will enable Northvolt to rely on fossil free and inexpensive energy.