Another huge battery plant to be built in Hungary

The investment will cost HUF 15 billion (EUR 39.2 million) for the Andrada Group, and the new plant will collect and exploit Samsung SDI’s and SK Battery’s Li-ion production scrap batteries.

According to portfolio.hu, the battery plant will be built in Alsózsolca, a village of approximately 5,500 inhabitants. The plant will be 60 thousand sqm and employ 70 people in three shifts with a capacity of 10 thousand tonnes.

They would store 40 tonnes of hazardous materials there, containing nickel, cobalt, and lithium. Before, the Hungarian authorities withdrew a similar company’s operation certificate because of irregularities, sicknesses and accidents. The village’s leadership gave the green light to the development and said Andrada would meet the strict German quality regulations.

Read also:

• Accidents, illnesses in battery plants in Hungary: new law comes? – Read more HERE
• Hungary becoming a battery superpower: is it a good idea?

Hungary’s dwarf green party to submit amendment proposal to prevent Hungary from becoming ‘battery cemetery’

The opposition Parbeszéd-Greens is going to submit an amendment proposal to the waste management law in order to ensure that Hungary does not become a “battery cemetery”, the party’s co-leader and lawmaker said on Monday. Rebeka Szabó told an online press conference that the government strategy to make Hungary a “battery empire” was very risky because it requires huge amounts of water, energy and land. The party does not want Hungary to become a “battery disposal facility” and if the government plans are carried out, plenty of waste resulting from battery making could make its way to Hungary, even from other European locations, she added.

Rebeka Szabó:

Battery waste must be recycled and it would be best if Hungary, which has no sufficient amount of water and electricity, should not be forced to establish extra capacities for processing waste from batteries returned from abroad, she said. Authority regulations are not strict enough in Hungary for such an industry to operate safely, she said. The party is preparing to submit an amendment proposal to the law on waste management to stipulate that faulty batteries withdrawn from use abroad should not be returned to Hungary for re-processing, she added.

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