RENERA, Rosatom's integrator company for energy storage business (a subsidiary of TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom), and the Government of Kaliningrad Region have signed an agreement on accomplishment of an investment project, aimed at building of a plant for production of lithium-ion cells and energy storage systems in Russia’s Western exclave region.

Enertech International Inc., a South Korean manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries and RENERA’s 49% subsidiary since 2021, will be the technological partner of the project. Its expertise and developments will enable manufacturing of products meeting high international standards.

The plant for the production of lithium-ion cells and energy storage systems, the so called “Russian gigafactory”, will be launched at the Baltic NPP site already in 2026. Construction of the manufacturing facility will contribute to development of this industrial site. The full production capacity of the plant will be at least 3 GWh annually (the total energy volume of the produced batteries).

“Building a large-scale facility for production of energy storage units is an important milestone for accomplishment of our strategy aimed at development of new non-nuclear businesses, but also for fulfillment of the Government’s electric transport development Concept with an outlook till 2030. The plant’s production is supposed to be consumed mainly by domestic car manufacturers, therefore the enterprise will make a significant contribution to implementation of the state policy of import substitution,” Natalia Nikipelova, President of TVEL Fuel Company, commented.

“The signals we receive from the Russian market indicate that the production volumes we planned a year ago may be insufficient. To fulfill the current plans for electric transport development, we are considering a possible growth of the plant's production capacity up to 12 GWh,” said Emin Askerov, Director General of RENERA.

“Implementation of this project can drive the socio-economic development of remote areas of our region. The preliminary need for personnel at the new plant is estimated at two thousand people, which means the prospect of an essential increase in the population of our eastern municipalities, housing construction and new infrastructure,” Anton Alikhanov, Governor of the Kaliningrad Region, commented.

Energy storage is an end-to-end technology in Rosatom’s portfolio of new businesses, which makes it possible to create high-tech products which are in demand in the new technological paradigm in compliance with the energy transition concept. Russian-made lithium-ion batteries should be used, in particular, in electric vehicles, power grids, uninterruptible power supply systems and energy consumption balancing systems.