reu-2018-10-16 battery factory Lithium-Werks
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lithium-werks-china-plant/dutch-battery-company-to-build-1-6-billion-euro-plant-in-china-idUSKCN1MQ1HG?il=0
Dutch battery company to build 1.6 billion euro plant in China
Toby Sterling
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Lithium Werks BV, a startup founded by Dutch
entrepreneur Kees Koolen, said on Tuesday it had signed a 1.6 billion
euro ($1.85 billion) deal to build a new storage battery plant in China.
FILE PHOTO: The reflection of a worker is seen at the production line of
lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EV) at a factory in Huzhou,
Zhejiang province, China August 28, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer
Koolen told Reuters the agreement included project financing of 15-30
percent by Chinese or regional financing sources, 50 percent from
development banks, and the remainder by Lithium Werks and its equity
investors.
The factory will be able to produce batteries with 500 GWh storage
capacity per year by 2030.
"There's a big appetite from investors for such projects and such
companies, so we have a lot of people interested to make sure we have
enough equity," Koolen said in a telephone interview.
"This is just the first project we're going to do."
The agreement is one of several commercial deals announced as Dutch Prime
Minister Mark Rutte and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met on Tuesday in the
Hague.
Koolen has invested 41 million euros into Lithium Werks and currently
holds a 50 percent stake, though he expects that to be diluted as it
grows.
The company's focus is on lithium iron phosphate batteries which are the
size of shipping containers. They are quick to charge and suitable for a
variety of uses, including solar or wind farms, or in the shipping
industry.
Koolen predicted the battery storage market would eventually be far
larger than the market for electric cars.
He said that European governments were also interested in supporting his
company, which has received investments from the University of Twente in
the Netherlands and Dutch development agency Oost NL.
But other potential projects are moving more slowly due to red tape,
Koolen said.
The factory is to be built on a 60 hectare site in the Yangtze River
Delta in cooperation with China's Zhejiang Jiashan Economic and
Technological Development Zone Industry Corporation.
Koolen, a partner at investor EQT Partners and an adviser to Uber
International, held key positions at Booking.com in the early days of its
transformation into the world's largest hotel booking site.
($1 = 0.8640 euros)
Reporting by Toby Sterling. Editing by Jane Merriman