The Prime Minister's speech at the opening of Morrow Battery Cell Factory in Arendal

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Kjære alle sammen,

Good morning, stakeholders, partners, suppliers, employees,

Coming here now makes me feel ‘electrified’ – and let me share with you what a week this has been for me. A week ago, I was in Paris and had the chance to see how Norway was capable of taking three gold medals in four hours. – Which was, in a way, an illustration of the fact that you can achieve pretty ‘impossible’ things in a short moment of time.

Coming here now, seeing this factory building grow, seeing it emerge, and as something so closely linked to the future – also this is just fantastic, so I congratulate all of you!

And, in fact, in this week, which has been a ‘giga week’ (Arendalsuka), I would say. Two days ago, I took part in the celebration at Næs Jernverk (Næs Ironworks Museum) – at the reopening of the big tool ‘Iron Hammer’ – which was hammering iron rods in an ironwork from the 17^th century. It broke down in 1959, and later a museum was established, and now they have rebuilt that hammer, a hammer that almost belonged to ‘the Iron Age’. When those hammers were hammering you could hear the sound all the way down to the coast.

So, I would just say, Arendal is the place for great things.

Green transition

I had the privilege to lay the foundation stone exactly here, two years ago. It was heavy rain that day, and today there is sun, but let us be grateful for the rain because it is water that runs the hammer at the ironworks, and it is water – Steffen (Syvertsen, Å Energi) – that makes the energy that makes all things work.

This is a great day – not only for Morrow and the battery cell factory – it is a great day for Norwegian industry. I salute my political partners here, and all those who have been participating at the municipal level and in Parliament, creating the necessary mechanisms. – Because this is a tangible step in the green transition – which simply has to succeed – and succeed with enthusiasm. It is not something we feel we are ‘forced’ to do – well, in fact we are – but we are doing it with motivation, due to all the opportunities it creates.

It will require the best of all of us – of ideas and creativity – but let us remember, and I think this is a word of caution: This is not going to be a straight-forward transition. It is going to be met with obstacles and disappointment and hurdles. There will be prognostics on how easy it will be, however, then we will find out that in the value chain there will be bottle-necks, and then we will have to persevere with the strong will that it can be achieved if we do things based on our experiences and if we innovate.

The Green Industrial Initiative

The only way forward for the world economy and for the Norwegian economy is to succeed in this transition. – This is why my government, from its very first day, launched the Green Industrial Initiative, based on the assumption that we can cut emissions and create jobs.

And based on the assumption that some of these new technologies can not simply ‘emerge’ from start by demand and supply. There has to be partnerships in order to succeed.

Our key priorities include CCS, hydrogen, offshore wind, green shipping, raw materials and batteries. – These are elements in the value chain of the renewable economy.

It is largely – and it should be – the industry itself that must be in the lead, with investments, with ideas, with technology, in order to have a profitable battery industry. Capital must come from the private sector, Norwegian and international, as it has here. – I salute you for the courage of moving forward.

At the same time, my government – and our partners in Parliament – have been developing a number of instruments to facilitate profitable industrial development. Our task – at different stages – is to help trigger these private initiatives and ‘connect the dots’ so we can move forward.

Batteries

Now, in order to speed up the transition, we will always need someone who dares to think big, take the lead, seize the opportunities and move ahead, and Morrow is one of them. – All of you, I mean – you are almost in the Olympics, I would say – this is fantastic.

Now, my friend Fredric Hauge has told me a lot, about many things – he is also ‘electrified’ as you can see today – and especially about the complexities of how we store renewable energy. – Because if we cannot store it, we are in a troubled position.

We are storing renewable energy in our water magazines up in the mountains, but what is produced of renewable energy from wind, from solar, from other sources, simply has to be stored. And batteries will be key to secure electrification of everything that needs to be electrified – and for the implementation of renewable power systems.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) – which I am in contact with almost weekly – tells me that our targets for emission reductions will depend on whether we will able to scale up battery production quickly enough.

And the drama I would say, at the international scene, is that this technology has a green premium; it is too expensive for the countries that need it most. And this is why – moving forward from Arendal – making progress here will also have implications far beyond our region.

Which also means that it should be room for many players in a diverse battery market. Here lies the Norwegian potential.

Europe

And let me also add, Mr Ambassador from the European Union, geopolitical uncertainty underlines that Europe cannot once again become dependent on critical materials, critical raw materials or critical energy from one authoritarian state.

And this is why every country has to look into what they have of opportunities, and Norway – again – we have raw materials, on land, we may have them on the seabed – and we can also develop renewable energy in a responsible way. I also see that as an international responsibility.

So, therefore, when Morrow opens Europe's largest factory for LFP batteries today – the largest factory, here in Arendal – it is yet another step where Norway provides its partnership with the European Union – our allies and partners – on energy.

I signed – with the President of the Commission the Green Alliance – and we are now, Mr Ambassador – you can report back – we are delivering on the Alliance.

As we do on our important role as a stable supplier of gas, we now add another dimension. In this respect, I am very happy to see that we have our German partners from the industry from Siemens here today.

The Norwegian model

Friends,

The fact that we all are here today, is also a good illustration of what we call – and it has already been highlighted – the Norwegian model: When the public sector facilitates and strengthens the effects of private investments. When ideas from universities, from research, from trade people come together, being pooled into a process that can really make a difference, especially when we do new things.

Since Morrow was established, many important players have come around; they are present here today – and we salute them. – Thank you to all international partners, and thank you to all Norwegian partners, public players – Arendal municipality, SIVA, Nysnø, Innovation Norway, Å Energy – you have supplied important contributions to this. All of you – and there are many others who have contributed – a heartful thank you!

Arendal

And I would also like to pass that message to the Mayor of Arendal, my friend Robert Nordli – and his team. I think this is a really impressive contribution by a very significant municipality in Norway – namely Arendal.

You started talking about battery production back in 2016. We often talked together on the phone. There was a sense and direction of the role that Arendal was taking – because what Robert was seeing – was that this is the place of Sam Eyde – this is the place where history has been made.

So, it is not only about building a factory, it is about receiving people, it is about thinking education, it is about having 29 nationalities. And – think about Arendal – this was the gate to the world a couple of hundred years ago, and you have recreated that gate. I think that is very impressive and you really deserve an applause!

Let me also – on that note – thank Peggy (Hessen Følsvik, LO) and Ole Erik (Almlid, NHO) – thank you, you are key partners, the way you work, seamingless, coming together, supporting this project – I think that is an extraordinarily good example of how this works for us. You do it also so in underlining the need for ‘Kraftløftet’ – the need for more renewable energy, how to move forward.

And all of this tells me that our future is not just powered by energy and batteries. It is pretty easy, you know – we have a slogan in Norway, saying that ‘we are powered by nature’, it sounds fine, but really – friends, we are powered by people.

So, now, when we are going to further develop the defence, we are going to significantly strengthen our defence sector, there will a lot on the defence materiel line, and that too is also about people. Building battery factories is about people, so that should make us proud.

I think this is a tremendous day, it is a ‘giga week’, it is a ‘giga event’. Congratulations to you all, thank you to all of my political partners, Erna (Solberg, Høyre) and Kirsti (Bergstø, SV), from both sides of the political spectre in Parliament; it is a strength in Norway – that we come together on big events. Congratulations – it is a great honour for me to say that to all of you. Thank you.