Battery

Norwegian industry already produces substantial amounts of precursor materials for batteries, chiefly aluminium and silicon, in addition to refining nickel, cobalt, graphite and copper – and Norwegian industry is known for being clean, innovative and efficient. We have a lot, but there is room for more.

Norway offers the unique opportunity to make batteries and precursor materials using exclusively renewable energy. Norwegian hydropower provides clean, stable, and affordable energy for factories all over the country, making it an ideal place to locate energy-intensive production of batteries and their precursor materials.

Plans for several battery cell factories in Norway are already in the works. Norway is developing into a hotspot for knowledge and infrastructure related to battery production. This makes Norway an important player in EU’s effort to build an independent, sustainable European battery value chain.

Norway has long been the definitive world leader in electric mobility, with the world’s highest penetration of EV vehicles.

Norway’s electric revolution is not confined to the roads, either. Norway is also the home of groundbreaking technological developments in electric maritime transport.

This has spurred the development of a vibrant ecosystem for electric mobility solutions – with Norwegian companies and industry clusters at the forefront in areas such as electric transport infrastructure, autonomous vehicle systems, electric ferries and effective charging solutions for cars and maritime vessels.

This, in turn, provides fertile ground for developing, testing and scaling battery solutions for electric mobility.

The EUs Green New Deal stipulates that battery production must be sustainable and circular. With record-breaking EV numbers, companies in Norway are in a unique position to develop, test and scale solutions for reusing and recycling batteries.

Spearheaded by leading industry clusters such as the Eyde Cluster, and backed by a highly developed research ecosystem, Norwegian industry is rapidly building up expertise and experience with sustainable and circular battery production.

Several such projects are underway; Libres, a collaboration between Norwegian industry leaders and Norwegian and German research institutions,is developing and improving solutions for battery recycling. There’s also the BATMAN project, which looks closely at the material usage and lifetime and Norwegian opportunities that arise as the battery recycling value chain matures.