Gigafactory

French sodium-ion battery maker Tiamat has raised €30 million ($32.6 million) in equity and debt financing. It will use the funds to launch the construction of a 5 GWh production plant in the Hauts-de-France region.

Europe’s leading battery maker, Northvolt, has signed a $5 billion non-recourse project financing arrangement to enable the expansion of Northvolt Ett in northern Sweden. The deal represents the largest green loan raised in Europe to date.

Two workers have died in separate accidents at Northvolt’s battery gigafactory in Sweden in recent weeks, with a technician succumbing to burns after an explosion on a production line and a construction worker killed by a falling fork stand. pv magazine has learned that the equipment that caught fire was not a part of the battery manufacturing process.

American Battery Factory has started building a $1.2 billion gigafactory in the US state of Arizona. It is set to generate approximately 1,000 job opportunities in the Tucson region.

Croatian high-performance EV component supplier and car manufacturer Rimac Technology has developed a novel battery architecture that is said to reduce efficiency losses by up to 50% while decreasing the system footprint by up to 40% compared to current state-of-the-art solutions.

Unlike lithium-ion battery cells, EnerVenue’s nickel metal-hydrogen technology showed no fire propagation during induced thermal runaway in UL battery safety testing.

Acciona Energia is setting up its first V2G network in Spain, ADS-TEC has unveiled a battery-based, all-in-one system with up to 300 kW of charging power, and Volkswagen is looking for a location for its first battery cell factory in North America.

While still using conventional lithium-ion raw materials, 24M’s technology is said to reduce the number of steps required to manufacture battery cells and thereby the cost by up to 40%. The US company’s SemiSolid design is also said to deliver improved energy density, safety and recyclability.

REC Solar has announced plans for a PV module gigafactory in France, along with 17 other clean tech projects that will share €1.8 billion ($1.8 billion) of grants from the European Union’s Innovation Fund.

Developed by Swedish manufacturer Polestar, the hard-top convertible incorporates a drone that can be launched from its dock behind the rear seats whilst driving to capture footage of the journey. In other news, Sony and Honda tie-up to make electric vehicles, Ford splits gas-powered and EV businesses, Stellantis unveils a strategic plan to reach net-zero by 2038, and Tesla offers free supercharging near Ukraine. Panasonic has also unveiled plans for two new production facilities for its large-format cylindrical battery cells.