As of: March 26, 2024 2:26 p.m
Despite the collapsing market for electric cars, the investments in the Northvolt location are the right ones, comments Andreas Schmidt, head of politics at NDR Schleswig-Holstein. There is a trend towards e-mobility – and Schleswig-Holstein’s wind energy-rich west coast is the ideal place.
Far out on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, between meadows and fields, on the flat land, a giga factory is now to be built. Almost a billion euros of tax money will flow here. And the costs for the infrastructure, roads, rails, schools, daycare centers are not even included.
The federal and state governments are spending a lot of money on Northvolt’s establishment
Where holidays on the farm are still a business model, the excavators will be rolling for at least two years. And then the assembly lines if the plan works. Especially now that sales of electric cars are collapsing in Germany, the government’s mega-investment in the Giga-Factory on the West Coast appears to be a highly risky bet on the future. Schleswig-Holstein has also increased its huge mountain of debt again in order to lure Northvolt to the Dithmarschen district.
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Use excess wind power on the west coast
Nevertheless: I think there is no alternative to this. The market for electric cars is weakening at the moment. This does not change the trend towards electromobility. And there is hardly any serious European supplier of batteries – apart from Northvolt. That alone makes it imperative to attract this company here and keep it here. In an increasingly disintegrating world, dependence on the market leaders from China will otherwise become an economic and therefore also a security risk.
There is also a lot of cheap wind power on the North Sea coast. It often cannot be transported away because there is not enough network capacity. That’s why the wind turbines stand still when the wind is good. That is absurd. So what could be more obvious than bringing the industry of the future to where the energy of the future is produced? In the end, it’s not just about a giga factory, but about the vision of a new, green growth spurt – far out there, on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, between meadows and fields, on the flat land. And I think this vision is worth every cent.
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The first | 03/25/2024 | 10:15 p.m