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Political celebrities at the groundbreaking ceremony: Renewable energies as a location advantage

Photo: Marcus Brandt/dpa

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) emphasized the strategic importance of investments such as the Northvolt battery factory near Heide for Germany and Europe. “Germany was, is and remains a strong industrial country,” said Scholz on Monday at a ceremony to mark the construction of the Gigafactory in Hedwigenkoog near Heide. “And the production of good cars remains the backbone of our industry, even beyond the combustion engine.” This requires battery cells made in Germany. That's why the construction of the Gigafactory near Heide is good news for the entire country. 3,000 jobs would be created directly at Northvolt, and another 10,000 are expected in the area around the factory. “This creates huge opportunities for medium-sized businesses.”

Before the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a battery factory by the Swedish company Northvolt near Heide, the police were widely present around the site on Monday morning. There were police cars on all the access roads. Officials also checked trucks that wanted to get onto federal highway 203, which runs past the construction site. A police spokeswoman said around 40 people initially gathered at the construction site in the morning. This also included nine tractors and more than 20 cars. The police are on site with “forces adapted to the situation”. On a tractor in a nearby field, a poster read: “Break the Green Wave.”

In addition to Scholz, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) and Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) also took part in the ceremony. Together with Northvolt boss Peter Carlsson and Northvolt Germany boss Christofer Haux, they pressed the start button for the foundation work for the first factory building.

Habeck described the construction of the factory as one of the largest investments in a long time. "We said that we - the federal government and the state - would spend a total of 900 million as support," Habeck told broadcaster NDR Info on Monday. "But Northvolt is also spending a lot of money, a total of almost five billion is being invested," added Habeck.

The Minister of Economic Affairs explained the choice of location with the availability of renewable energy. Northvolt looked throughout Europe and throughout Germany for a suitable location. The main reason why Heide prevailed was “the density of green electricity,” said Habeck. Wind power is becoming “a magnet for company settlement.”

In Heide, Northvolt wants to produce batteries for a million electric cars every year. Production is scheduled to start in 2026 and create 3,000 new jobs. Prime Minister Günther was also pleased about the settlement on NDR Info on Monday morning. He sees advantages especially for the German automotive industry. For appropriate supply chains, “the greenest car battery in the world must, if possible, be built in Germany,” he said. The conversion to renewable energies is a “location advantage and means industrial settlement”. “Many people notice that this is also an advantage for us in Schleswig-Holstein,” added Günther.

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) also sees great opportunities for Schleswig-Holstein in the area of ​​green energies. There are “many good regional and economic policy reasons to promote and accelerate this transformation process,” explained Institute President Moritz Schularick.

The bottom line, however, is that the groundbreaking ceremony is “very expensive” and leads to a “subsidy race,” he criticized. "Northvolt's investment would probably have been worthwhile even with far fewer subsidies, which only makes the shareholders happy." The money now has to be "provided by the taxpayer and is missing elsewhere, for example in investments in education or infrastructure," explained the IfW president.

In January, the EU approved 902 million euros in funding for the battery factory in Schleswig-Holstein. According to the Schleswig-Holstein State Chancellery, the federal and state governments are funding the project with around 700 million euros, spread over several annual tranches. There are also guarantees for a further 202 million euros. The federal government will cover around 564 million euros of the funding, and the state wants to provide up to 137 million euros.

Critics still see major problems with the infrastructure, as the factory needs to be connected to the German transport network. Northvolt has signaled that development is primarily desired via rail, explained Bundestag members Matthias Gastel (Greens) and Stefan Seidler from the South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW) on Monday. Despite the symbolic power of the billion-dollar project, it is not yet guaranteed that the necessary rail infrastructure to connect the plant to the German rail network can be implemented by 2026.

mic/AFP