The Phi4tech integral energy storage project in Extremadura contemplates, in relation to the supercapacitor cell factory in the Southwest European Platform, in Badajoz, that the works will begin on March 1 of next year, with the aim of finishing them in December of that same year.
As stated by the president of Phi4tech, Alejandro Ayala, only this factory of energy storage supercapacitors aimed at Data Center and renewable customers will produce 600,000 units per year, which places it as one of the most relevant factories in Europe, as stated by They said this Friday at an act at the Southwest European Logistics Platform in Badajoz, in which the president of the Board, Guillermo Fernández Vara, also intervened.
An act in which the update of the comprehensive energy storage project in Extremadura was presented, with the presence of the Government delegate in Extremadura, Yolanda García Seco; or the counselor for the Ecological Transition and Sustainability, Olga García, among other authorities.
This initial phase of the factory will generate 50 jobs, according to Ayala, who has advanced that the first phase will be complemented by the construction of a European reference center for research and development of nanomaterials for use in energy storage, in view of which, on July 30, they will present the base project for this center to the town hall, which will be located next to the supercapacitor cell factory.
The works will begin in April 2023, and the inauguration will be at the beginning of 2024, and that same year 100 researchers will be incorporated, which in 2025 will reach 200. At this point, it has affected the “extraordinary” relationship with the University of Extremadura and that this month the two basic projects will be presented to the city council, before which they hope to start the works on January 23, inaugurate at the beginning of the 24, and create a total of 250 jobs in this first phase of the factory.
Cathode Factory
Regarding the cathode factory in Cáceres, he recalled that for its operation they need the raw material, lithium, and that they have “always” commented that the viability of this factory is conditional on the extraction permits from the Cañaveral mine, which They understand that they are advancing “adequately”, and in view of which they have stressed that the deadlines for the execution of the work will be synchronized so that it can be completed at the same time that the extraction of lithium begins, in addition to maintaining the investment figure of 200 million , creating 360 jobs in the maturity of the project.
“Nobody is unaware of the strategic value of this factory, which is going to be the first for cathodes in Spain, given the multiple announcements in our region, in Spain and in Europe of the start of gigafactory projects for batteries”, he underlined, to clarify that “it will be in Cañaveral where the first phase of this entire project will be carried out.”
Similarly, and with respect to the lithium mining project in Las Navas, it is planned to obtain the mining exploitation concession, environmental, municipal, water management permits and other authorizations at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, in such a way that Construction would begin in the second quarter of next year, and lithium hydroxide production would begin in May 2025. The estimated total investment is 340 million, with direct employment of 430 people to which another 1,220 indirect ones would have to be added. .
Regarding the Aguablanca mine, in Monasterio, Ayala has indicated that it was acquired last year with the intention of reopening it and extracting nickel and cobalt; and that nickel specifically has become a strategic material for Europe since the start of the war in Ukraine, while they have announced that they are “ready” to reopen the mine “immediately”, and they are counting on the support ” inestimable” of the Council for Ecological Transition and Sustainability of the Junta, and with that of the Monesterio City Council.
However, he has emphasized that the Aguablanca mine is the only mine in Spain that continues to belong to the State Reserve, since, since the General Sub-directorate of Mines of the Ministry of Ecological Transition has the powers, “they are slowing down more administrative procedures than we would like”, while pointing out that, when it is “in full swing”, around 350 people will be working in Monesterio.
Alejandro Ayala has concluded that Phi4tech “is an integrating project with a global investment of more than 1,000 million euros and that it will create a total of 1,300 direct jobs, to which indirect jobs must be added”.
Vara, the value chain and human capital
For his part, Guillermo Fernández Vara has assessed that these projects are “a part of this reality of profound change” and “profound transformation” that the community is undergoing “in the best of senses”, and that it is going “without a doubt”. to be part of a “necessarily historic” change in it, while asking “why these projects exist” and why companies like Phi4tech come to Extremadura, to which he replied that “because they think they are doing to go well”.
The latter is, for Vara, “the key to the vault” on which to reflect “much more” because “they are not investing their money, which is to be appreciated, as a modern NGO”, but to earn money and generate wealth, while the wealth they generate “is going to make us all better” by making their environment “better” or by having more tax revenue, with which they will have better hospitals or schools.
At the same time, he has maintained that Ayala proposes this project “closing circles” and being capable of, based on natural resources, reaching the final products, to which he has pointed out that “this is what we are in, trying to make it close the circles of the value chain because the relocation of the value chain is going to take place and is taking place no matter what” and “what we have to achieve is that it be complete”.
At another point in his speech, Vara referred to the fact that, from the moment these projects become a “reality”, “the great challenge appears, the formation of human capital”, about which he pointed out that, when they have been working in relation to the possible profiles that are going to be needed, three quarters are professional training and the other quarter is University, and has advocated that when in the 23rd, 24th or 25th they open the lists to work on all these projects there are people trained in Extremadura in this sense.
“That is our responsibility, in addition to being able to respond to the papers in a timely manner,” said Vara, who has made progress in relation to the Aguablanca mine, which is going to have a meeting this month with Olga García and with the Ministry of Ecological Transition regarding the possibility, raised moments before by Ayala, that the powers are from Extremadura.
“It doesn’t matter to me that we can do what they do, what we have to achieve is that it be done,” concluded the head of the regional Executive, to influence: “we have no objection on our part if it were so deemed the Government, that just as we are or have the competence in the rest of the mines, we could also have it in the Aguablanca mine”.
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