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Swedish battery start-up to build third factory in northern Germany

Battery group Northvolt announced Tuesday that it would build a battery factory in northern Germany, as Europe seeks to ramp up its capacity to produce electric cars.

A rendering of the planned Northvolt Drei battery factory
A rendering of the planned Northvolt Drei battery factory. Photo: Northvolt

The Swedish electric car battery specialist said it picked Heide in Germany’s northernmost state Schleswig-Holstein as it is known as a “clean energy valley” which is home to windfarms that would power the plant.

The new plant is expected to have an annual production capacity of 60 GWh — enough to supply around one million cars per year. The factory could start production in 2025 and provide some 3,000 jobs, the company said in a statement.

Northvolt opened its first “gigafactory” in Sweden in December and the Heide factory will take its battery manufacturing capacity under development above 170 GWh gigawatt hours.

Schleswig-Holstein was selected as the “region hosts the cleanest energy grid in Germany, one which is characterized by a surplus of electricity generated by onshore and offshore wind power”, Northvolt said.

“It matters how we produce a battery cell. If you use coal in your production, you embed a fair amount of CO2 into your battery, but if we use clean energy, we can build a very sustainable product,” Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson said.

One of Europe’s leading battery hopefuls, Northvolt has already secured $50 billion (44.6 billion euros) worth of orders from European car giants including Germany’s BMW and Volkswagen, and Sweden’s Volvo.

Faced with China, which dominates the market, Europe accounted for just three percent of world battery cell production in 2020 but aims to corner 25 percent of the market by the end of the decade, with several factory openings planned.

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WILDLIFE

Why Sweden wants you to collect bear poo

An unusual request has attracted a lot of attention in Swedish media: local county administrations need the public to collect bear poo for an important wildlife research project.

Why Sweden wants you to collect bear poo

A somewhat unusual request is echoing through the region of Västerbotten in Sweden.

The country administrative board is asking the public for help gathering bear excrement for a critical wildlife research project.

This initiative, conducted every five years, aims to assess the bear population’s size, distribution, and health across these areas.

How to do it

The task of collecting bear droppings is no small feat.

According to the county administration, around 2,000 samples are needed to ensure the study’s accuracy.

The logistics of collecting such a vast number of samples necessitate public involvement, so the administration depends heavily on those who visit Sweden’s forests and fields for assistance.

Kits are provided by the county authorities, but you can also stick the droppings in a clean bag or container and keep it in the freezer until you submit it. Just be careful not to touch the bear droppings so that you don’t contaminate them.

Wildlife research

Once collected, the samples are sent for DNA analysis, which helps determine the individual bear’s genetic makeup.

This data is necessary for calculating the number and distribution of the bear population.

By involving the public, the project also seeks to raise awareness about bears and their role in the Swedish ecosystem.

Talking to the newspaper Västerbottens-Kuriren, Jonas Gustafsson of the Västerbotten county administration emphasised the importance of widespread participation.

“The more samples we get, the better. With a large county… it is essential that hunters and the general public also send in droppings,” he said.

For those unsure about identifying bear droppings, Gustafsson provided some tips.

“A typical bear dropping contains a lot of blueberries, especially in autumn. And it is often quite a large pile.”

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