In December 2020, entities in Norway were invited to express interest in hosting a possible battery plant. There has been considerable interest in the project and many potential locations have been proposed. The deadline for expressing interest was January 28.

Panasonic, Equinor and Hydro will now assess the submitted proposals. In all, 82 proposals covering more than 100 different proposed site locations were submitted from all parts of Norway.  The companies will not announce or make any public comments about individual proposals.

The first step will be to identify the proposed locations that meet the requirements for a battery plant. Once that initial assessment has been completed, each applicant will be notified of whether the proposal meets the requirements. After this will be a further maturation process to focus in on the most competitive alternatives by mid-2021. The companies will strive to treat all applicants and proposals equally and base the conclusions on defined criteria and objective assessments.

In parallel, the partnership is working to assess the market for lithium-ion batteries in Europe and mature the business case for a green battery business located in Norway. Preliminary findings are expected around mid-2021 and these will inform subsequent decisions by the partnership.