Northvolt has submitted an application for authorization to build another factory planned on its land, but for battery recycling. Unlike its “giga-factory” for manufacturing batteries and the destruction of the site’s natural environments, this next phase of the industrial complex will be subject to the environmental procedure which will lead to a BAPE.
According to what the company specified in a press release on Wednesday, this “project”, called “Revolt”, will be the subject of an impact study that Northvolt plans to submit by the end of 2024. We hope as well as the examination by the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) be carried out in the spring of 2025 and that construction begins during the same year.
A “notice” was filed with the Quebec Ministry of the Environment, and the authorization request has already been registered in the public register since April 11.
“As part of the notice, Northvolt documented the potential impacts of construction and operating activities on components of the physical, biological and human environment. Each of the impacts will have to be the subject of an in-depth analysis,” assures the company.
Northvolt will in fact have to respond to the “directive” from the Ministry of the Environment, which will specify the elements that must be part of an impact study: issues for biodiversity, water protection, management of contaminated soil, choice of site, choice of technology, industrial processes, social acceptability, impact on the local environment, road traffic in the area, mitigation measures for the various anticipated impacts, etc.
Once the study has been submitted, different ministries will analyze the document and request clarification from the promoter. When the impact study has been deemed complete, the BAPE may be mandated to analyze the project.
“Recycling is an essential part of Northvolt’s model, which aims to produce the greenest batteries in the world,” the company underlines in its press release.
Multiple requests
Before launching recycling operations, which could begin in 2027, Northvolt submitted an authorization request to build its battery “gigafactory” on the site where it has razed wooded areas and filled in wetlands. The document detailing the project and submitted to the government was obtained by The duty following a request for access to information. It was redacted at the company’s request.
She also requested authorization to excavate contaminated soil from certain wetlands. The Ministry of the Environment, which is currently analyzing the request and must authorize the work, is however unaware of the levels of soil contamination and the volumes that will be excavated.
The company has also submitted a request to Fisheries and Oceans Canada to be able to drain rainwater from the site of its future factory, which includes contaminated soil, into the river.
All these requests are currently being analyzed. She will still have to obtain several environmental authorizations as part of her project. This is in fact evaluated as the company submits requests, due to the absence of an environmental procedure including an impact study of the project, as is usually the practice in Quebec for major industrial projects.
Northvolt, however, promises that it will publish the documents submitted to the government with a view to obtaining the various authorizations, but only once these have been granted. The company says it does so in the name of “serenity” in its analysis.