Bjørn Rune Gjelsten and his partners to build one of Europe’s largest battery factories in Arendal



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A battery factory worth up to NOK 20 billion will be built in Arendal.

It was decided Tuesday night, and it means that Arendal has surpassed Kristiansand and Lista in seeking a billion investments and a thousand new jobs. The battery factory can provide Arendal with 2,000 to 2,500 new factory jobs, and even more jobs with subcontractors and other associated companies.

– It will be Arendal. I can confirm that, says Morrow Batteries CEO Terje Andersen.

– This is what we call a concert factory, which is defined as one of the largest battery factories in Europe. Our most important customer is the segment of transportation, automobile and other types of transportation, and then we have to increase the size of the concerts, he says.

– We are going to surpass the Chinese, South Koreans and Japanese, who have had the exclusive right to this for 15 years, says Andersen.

Batterifabrikken is a collaborative project between leading Norwegian investor Bjørn Rune Gjelsten, Agder Energi, Bellona and Morrow.

The ambitious battery plans of top Norwegian investor Bjørn Rune Gjelsten and his partners were discussed by DN in May this year.

Since then, several municipalities on the southern coast have fought for the great factory. In the end, it was Lista, Støleheia out of Kristiandsand, Grovane out of Vennesla, and Arendal that stayed on the top list.

– Battery factories need a lot of energy. Norway has it. And Sørlandet is close to the European market. Geography is crucial if we want to be successful with a large-scale factory, we must be close to the customers, Gjelsten said then.

Gjelsten is already prominent in real estate, waste management, retail and sports, and accumulated much of his fortune with Kjell Inge Røkke in the seafood, industrial and petroleum sectors. You are now investing in green investments.

According to Gjelsten, the electric car market will explode in the next few years, and European production of battery cells for electric cars will approach an annual turnover of around NOK 1 billion. In addition, there is demand for batteries from other industries. Sweden’s Northvolt’s planned battery factory already has German automaker Volkswagen on the owner’s side and is valued at NOK 20 billion.

– The potential to establish more battery factories is enormous. The challenge is that current battery production is far from sustainable. Not only because of the use of minerals. Today, a large portion of all electric car batteries used in European car factories in China, Japan and Korea are produced. And most electric car batteries are produced on highly polluting coal power, says Gjelsten.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content can only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.

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