Swedish company Northvolt says it’s moving forward with plans to open a large electric vehicle battery plant near Montreal by 2026, despite a tight schedule and opposition from environmental groups.
The company’s North American CEO stated today that the company still needs about a dozen different approvals to finish construction on the project, including permits to build its buildings and to use water from the Richelieu River and release it.
Paolo Cerruti told reporters in Montreal that there’s a risk in investing billions in a project without all the permits, but the company believes in the technology it’s working on.
Cerruti said he has been surprised by the public criticism of the project, including by an environmental group that unsuccessfully went to court trying to stop construction.
But he said the project takes time and the company is committed to staying in Quebec for many years.
Cerruti said Northvolt has finished cutting trees on one part of its site that crosses the communities of McMasterville and St-Basile-le-Grand, and is planning in the near future to build roads and temporary stormwater drainage systems on the 170-hectare property southeast of Montreal.
Northvolt also intends to submit the documents for the parts of its project that are subject to an environmental assessment by the province’s Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement — or BAPE — by the end of the year, and will eventually make them public.
Since it was announced in September 2023, the project has faced opposition from environmental groups and the Mohawk community, who say the company is being built on environmentally sensitive land without undergoing a proper environmental assessment process, including full public consultations under the BAPE.
In January, Northvolt had to briefly suspend work when an environmental group and several citizens went to Superior Court to try to halt construction that they argued would destroy a number of wetlands. The injunction request was denied.
Also in January, nails or metal bars were inserted into about 100 trees by anonymous saboteurs allegedly hoping to slow down tree-cutting on the site.
Cerruti said Wednesday that he wasn’t expecting his company to be accused of disrespecting the environment. “This company exists because we felt the urgency to do something for the environment and respond to the climate emergency,” he said.
The company acknowledged Wednesday that its timeline for construction is tight, and it will have to “do it quick and do it well” to start production in 2026.
The company is hoping to use water from the Richelieu River, which is home to the endangered copper redhorse fish, to cool its equipment. If it can’t get permission, Northvolt officials said there were other options, including cooling towers, although that isn’t a permanent solution.
In the short term, the company is planning to temporarily have 350 to 450 trucks per day coming and going from the site once it gets the go-ahead for the next step in the project. Northvolt says it will put mitigation measures in place to reduce dust and nuisance. It also plans to replant 2.5 trees for every one it cuts down.
The company states that the batteries it plans to make will have a carbon footprint that is 90 percent smaller than its main competitors, who are located in China.
