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Lusatia is also developing thanks to the settlement of companies such as the Altech Group increasingly becoming the focus of battery production. The technology manufacturer plans to build two factories for this sector in the Schwarze Pumpe industrial park in southern Brandenburg. According to CEO Uwe Ahrens, detailed plans for the plants should be ready by the end of the year. Including all expansion phases, the project involves investments of over one billion euros and 1,000 jobs.
Once the planning has been completed, subsidies, equity and debt capital will be "collected," Ahrens tells the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, explaining the next steps. Above all, the EU in Brussels with the Green Deal is now being taken at its word. The battery market is emerging now, he said. "By 2030, we have to be there." With the Green Deal ("Green Deal"), the EU aims to become climate neutral by 2050. The strategy includes measures in various sectors such as energy, transport, industry and agriculture.
Satisfied with the support in the countries
"In Brussels, they are not as fast as in Brandenburg or in Saxony," emphasizes Ahrens, who praises the state governments and also the administrations for their "excellent support." Lusatia, he says, is an ideal location in many respects. "There is industrial friendliness here, vacant land, a certain focus has been created here." The Altech board expects all applications in the approval process to receive positive decisions.
Altech wants to build a plant for more advanced ceramic batteries that do not require materials such as lithium or cobalt in the industrial park on the Brandenburg-Saxony border. To this end, the company has signed an agreement with the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) concluded an agreement. It is about batteries for the power grid. According to its own information, IKTS has a 25 percent share in the joint venture.
A ceramic tube is the secret
The special feature of the so-called Cerenergy batteries is that they do not contain lithium, cobalt, copper or graphite, the Altech executive explains. According to him, the non-combustible novel solid-state battery essentially consists of a ceramic tube into which common salt is introduced instead of lithium. It will be manufactured, Ahrens said, using materials from the region. Because of its weight and also its volume, the battery is not suitable for use in electromobility, but it is suitable as an energy storage device.
The second project, an initial production plant for e-car batteries, is to be launched as an industrial park on the Brandenburg-Saxony border before the end of this year - initially with an annual output of 100 megawatt hours. The plant, as a pilot project, will produce a new type of material called "Siluma Anodes" that can be used for lithium-ion batteries in electric cars. For this purpose, they will be coated with ceramics, which should make the battery more powerful and durable.
The energy company Leag is also interested in working with Altech, says Ahrens. With its plans to build a gigafactory - a huge energy center consisting of PV and wind turbines on post-mining land - Leag will also use a large system of different batteries, he says. "For sure also ceramic batteries, I am firmly convinced of that." (dpa)
