Cost estimate for Rosatom battery factory in Kaliningrad nearly doubles to 51.5 bln rubles - paper

MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) - The cost estimate for the construction of state corporation Rosatom's lithium-ion battery factory in Kaliningrad has nearly doubled to 51.5 billion rubles from the previous 26.35 billion rubles, national daily Kommersant said on Tuesday, citing an updated plan for the development of energy storage systems.

Rosatom is prepared to invest 19.2 billion rubles of its own money in the factory, the paper said. Loans will finance 27.3 billion rubles of the cost and the regional government will provide 5 billion rubles.

Renera LLC, the Rosatom subsidiary carrying out the project, told the paper that the updated figure includes the estimated cost of building the factory itself, as well as the construction of an R&D center to develop new battery production technologies and conduct research.

Rosatom Group's integrator for energy storage, Renera (a division of Rosatom's nuclear fuel company TVEL) began building the lithium-ion cell and storage battery factory last fall on the site of the shelved Baltic Nuclear Power Plant in Kaliningrad Region. The first line of the factor is expected to be launched in the fall of 2025 with production capacity of 4 GWh per year.

If demand grows, a second and third production line can be added, expanding the factory's capacity to 14 GWh per year.