A highly-touted expansion in British Columbia’s clean technology economy has been put on hold.
In November 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby announced the billion-dollar expansion to a Maple Ridge lithium-ion battery plant, a project expected to create 350 permanent jobs.
But the company behind the proposal, battery cell maker E-One Moli, now says the economics of battery power electrification have changed. The company said the Maple Ridge plant is one of many projects it is scaling back globally.
Taiwan Cement Corp. company chairman Nelson Chang is quoted in a release saying construction has stopped in order to focus on Taiwanese production, in step with other battery makers suspending similar projects across North America.
The statement from Chang says it will be “very difficult” for the company to build new plants abroad before achieving full efficiency at its Taiwanese facility.
Maple Ridge Mayor Dan Ruimy said despite the pause, he remains confident the project will eventually be completed.
“They have been very clear it’s just a pause. If they wanted to cancel it they would have cancelled it,” he said.
Ruimy said that given the “large chunk of change” the company was looking at investing, it is not surprising that it has taken a step back to analyze the market, given shifting political and economic conditions.
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But he said the fact the plant is designed to produce non-car batteries works to its advantage.
“They have said all along that the project here is a viable project, to have a North American plant dealing with non-car batteries and appliance batteries make sense,” he added.
The power-down on the proposed plant comes amid a plateau in the global market for battery technology, with a glut of product as demand underperforms expectations.
Cleantech projects around the world are being reconsidered, not just in the battery sector but in alternative fuels as well.
In Prince George, a hydrogen generating plant was scrapped earlier this year.
One analyst said there is too much uncertainty both with regard to the adoption of specific technologies as well as the future of government policies like Canada’s electric vehicle mandate.
“They will only invest if they know they can actually amortize their investment over the next number of years,” said Werner Antweiler, a professor of economics at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
“If the market of EVs is going to stagnate … then we will see this hesitancy because there is already a glut of projects that have been announced elsewhere. So it’s the marginal plant that will pull out, the one that is going to be in the most difficult spot to produce in that environment.”
Energy and Climate Solutions Minister Adrian Dix said the decision was unfortunate, but that the province remained committed to becoming a “clean tech superpower.”
“They have laid out their reasons, which are largely international factors, and obviously disappointing,” he said.
“We are not obviously happy about that, but in B.C. we are going to go and drive economic development and especially clean economic development.”
The provincial government had pledged $80 million to the expansion project, while the federal government had promised $204.5 million.
While the battery plant expansion is on hold, the existing Maple Ridge factory continues to manufacture lithium-ion cells.
With files from the Canadian Press
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