Energy Café: Imagining Re-Industrialisation: Battery Gigafactories and the energy transition in Norway

Hosted by Anna-Sophie Hobi.

Lithium-ion batteries are pivotal in the efforts to ‘decarbonise’ the European economy. Consequently, a battery manufacturing industry is expanding rapidly, also in Norway, where four so-called Gigafactories are planned. This energy café takes you to one of such places: In Arendal, a small coastal town in Southern Norway, a Gigafactory was announced in 2020. There, the large-scale project sparked optimism and expectations of economic growth. In this talk, I will reflect on how factories are being associated with prosperity and welfare, and on how the energy transition is envisioned as (onshore) re-industrialisation in an oil-dependent country.