Spanish battery consortium unveiled to accelerate green economic recovery

Major Spanish industrial companies announced yesterday the creation of the Battchain consortium formed to respond to increasing demand for batteries. Battchain aims to accelerate Europe’s green economic recovery by expanding Spain’s battery value chain across raw materials extracting through battery recycling.

The consortium will seek investment of €1.2 billion to deploy its industrial projects mainly across Spain’s automotive sector. More than 1,700 direct and 12,000 indirect jobs will be created as a result of these projects, with turnover expected to reach €2.4 billion in 2030. Critically, through successful project delivery, Battchain will eliminate 1.5 million tons of CO2 emissions annually.

Led by EIT InnoEnergy, that is also leading the industrial workstream of the European Battery Alliance, Battchain brings together leading energy and industrial players Extremadura Mining, Ente Vasco de la Energia, CIC EnergiGUNE, Fagor Ederlan, Ingeteam, SODENA, Scoobic and BeePlanet Factory. Projects in the consortium include the lithium extraction and refining of 15,000 annual tonnes of lithium hydroxide, a 10GWh solid state cell factory, a 120,000 pack annual capacity battery pack assembly plant, an assembly factory for up to 20,000 last mile electric vehicles and a battery collection, recycling and second life plant.

Mikel Lasa, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy Spain, commented: “Through our work leading the European Battery Alliance, we saw the potential of creating a Spanish value chain to accelerate change. We have proven success in driving forward these types of projects to commercialisation by connecting partners with the right funds and market support. The players we’ve brought together already have economically viable projects in development – making this an initiative that will catapult real change in Spain’s automotive industry.”

For more information, read the full press release.