The government believes that Norway and Norwegian business and industry are uniquely positioned to succeed in the green shift, with rich natural resources, top-class industrial expertise, the Norwegian working life model and more than 100 years of experience with renewable energy, electrification, the world's leading offshore technology and continuous development of leading process industries. These are advantages that provide significant value creation opportunities in a world that is increasingly demanding sustainable products and solutions. Seizing these opportunities is also about maintaining the competitiveness of Norwegian industry, in the short and long term.
Today, Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre presented Norway's first battery strategy with 10 steps for how Norway will further develop a coherent and profitable battery value chain:
https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/a894b5594dbf4eccbec0d65f491e4809/batteristrategien_web2.pdf
- Leadership in sustainability across the battery value chain
- Promote Norway as an attractive host country for green investments
- Enter into industrial partnerships with key countries
- Provide capital, loans and guarantees that leverage private capital
- Promote access to competence
- Facilitate more renewable energy access
- Contribute to land and other central infrastructure
- Ensure predictable, efficient and coordinated public processes
- Support for pilot municipalities in growth
- Leadership on tomorrow's battery solutions and leveraging digital technology opportunities
- With the launch of "Norway's battery strategy", we take a closer look at the battery value chain and present ten measures for sustainable industrialization, which together should be powerful enough to attract private capital to the industry. With this, we want to make Norwegian and international battery players and investors aware of the advantages of choosing Norway as a host country for new investments. At the same time, the strategy will anchor further concretization of the policy for the battery industry. If we are to achieve our goals, we must strengthen our industrial cooperation along several axes, and we see that several policy areas are key to realizing the government's ambitions in the battery area," says Minister Vestre.
Promises good!
- This bodes well, and shows that the government is taking this seriously. Congratulations to Freyr, which is now starting production in Mo i Rana. It's a clear sign that the conditions are now in place for sustainable industrialization within the entire battery chain, and that Norway will be promoted as an attractive host country and that they will contribute to land and other key infrastructure," says Tiril Fjeld, CEO of Haugaland Næringspark.
- Beyonder has chosen Haugaland Nærinsgpark as the location for its large-scale battery cell production. "This is a completely new and self-developed technology that provides a more sustainable way of producing batteries. They are already well underway with innovation production at their premises at Forus," says Fjeld.
Norway as an attractive host country
McKinsey has estimated that Norway can achieve a market share in Europe of up to 20% for battery cell production.
- The government will work to ensure that Norway is a good host country for investments in green value chains in Norway, and we will support the pilot municipalities," promises Vestre, who highlighted Mo i Rana, Arendal and Tysvær during the press conference.
Focus on land and other key infrastructure
The battery strategy stipulates that green industrial establishments must be well anchored and as gentle as possible for the surroundings, by taking care of nature, the environment and wildlife, and facilitating social meeting places locally.
- The government will consider whether Siva, together with Invest in Norway, can be tasked with facilitating industrial establishments in Norway and assisting industry in preparing industrial sites. The government will also present a national strategy for the preparation of green industrial areas and industrial parks with international competitive advantages throughout the country," says Vestre.
