Chinese lithium-ion battery specialist Hithium has secured an €81 million (US$92 million) grant from the Spanish government to accelerate its planned battery cell and battery energy storage system (BESS) plant in Navarre, Spain, half of the entire €162 million clean-energy manufacturing pot awarded under the RENOVAL 2 scheme.
Spain's largest clean-energy manufacturing award
The award, announced by the Institute for Diversification and Energy Saving (IDAE), part of the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO), covers 40 clean-tech manufacturing projects, but Hithium's is by far the largest. Ten other battery projects share the remaining pot, none rivalling the scale of the Navarre facility. The €81 million represents roughly 20% of Hithium's projected €405 million total investment, being developed through the Spanish subsidiary Hithium Spain Innovation S.A.U.
LFP cell and BESS assembly under one roof
The gigafactory pairs lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cell manufacturing with BESS assembly, following an agreement signed with the regional government of Navarre in April 2026 in the presence of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Hithium has not yet disclosed the facility's nameplate capacity or start-of-production date, but the company has said the project will create around 700 direct jobs and begin production in 2027.
Europe rebuilds its battery manufacturing base
The grant is a boost for a European battery manufacturing sector still recovering from the collapse of Northvolt, Freyr's US pivot and Morrow's insolvency. Alongside Hithium, Eni Storage Systems broke ground on its own LFP gigafactory in Brindisi the same week, signalling that Chinese and Italian capital are together underwriting the next phase of European stationary storage supply, with the region's BESS demand set to jump from 36 GWh in 2025 to 138 GWh by 2030 according to Eni.
Hithium already ranks among the top global BESS system integrators and cell makers, and last month filed for a Shanghai IPO to raise 2.6 billion yuan. The Navarre plant marks the company's first major European manufacturing footprint outside China.
Reporting based on coverage from Energy-Storage.News, IDAE and PV Tech.