(Quebec) Northvolt has the most efficient and reliable technology that the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has seen.
The Caisse’s senior management thus justified its investment of 200 million in the parent company of this controversial battery factory project which is to be built in Montérégie.
In a parliamentary committee Wednesday afternoon, the first vice-president and Quebec head of the Caisse, Kim Thomassin, praised the “very, very high transparency” of Northvolt and indicated that the investment corresponded to the return profile as well as the level of risk required by the Fund.
“Northvolt’s technology is the one that we found to be the most efficient, the most reliable, compared to all the other investments that we could have seen,” she summarized, arguing that Northvolt has a portfolio orders of 55 billion. She also assured that the Fund had been able to make comparisons.
We have followed the battery industry for several years, we met a variety of people who came to present us with files, but never of the quality of what the people from Northvolt presented to us.
Kim Thomassin, first vice-president and Quebec head of the Caisse
The potential for expansion and growth of the battery industry would be 30% by 2030, according to studies, added Mme Thomassin.
She specified that the Fund had worked with experts as well as internal teams, since the battery sector is a new sector of the economy.
The 200 million invested by the Caisse in the parent company, in Sweden, is a convertible debt which offers “additional protection”, continued the manager.
A project that divides
Northvolt is the subject of a political battle: opposition groups and parties are demanding in particular the holding of consultations from the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE), among other things because the factory should be built on land zoned industrial, but where there are natural environments, marshes, ponds, etc.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The plant is planned to be located on a huge 172-hectare plot of land, straddling McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand, in Montérégie.
Estimated at 7 billion, the Northvolt factory project is considered to be the largest private investment in the history of Quebec.
Its location is planned on a huge 172-hectare plot of land, straddling McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand, in Montérégie.
Battery cells and cathode materials will be manufactured there, and recycling will be carried out there.
A legal saga is underway to block the project. The Superior Court refused to grant an injunction targeting Northvolt to the Quebec Environmental Law Center (CQDE) and three citizens.
They argued in particular that the Ministry of the Environment had authorized Northvolt to begin work on the ground without knowing precisely the impact on biodiversity, and without Northvolt presenting a detailed compensation plan.
In April, the CQDE and the three citizens returned to the charge before the Superior Court.
This time, they are contesting a regulatory modification which allowed the authorization of the Northvolt project without the holding of a BAPE.
The Regulation respecting the assessment and review of the environmental impacts of certain projects has been amended to avoid a BAPE assessment for battery factories that produce 60,000 metric tons or less.
However, the production capacity of the factory would be 56,000 metric tons.