HITHIUM PUTS €400M INTO NAVARRE BESS

Navarre's Industry Minister Mikel Irujo signed an investment commitment with Chinese battery storage manufacturer Hithium in Beijing on 16 April, closing a two-year courtship that included seven visits by Chinese representatives to the region and four Navarrese delegations to China.

The deal commits Hithium to build what would be Europe's first dedicated battery energy storage systems gigafactory in Navarre for approximately €400 million, creating 700 direct jobs in its first phase and up to 1,050 across two phases.

"We believe that both Navarre and Spain offer the right commercial atmosphere for us and for other Chinese companies to develop their business in Europe." — Dr. Qi Tang, PRNewswire, 2026.

The project runs through a joint venture between Hithium and Sodena, Navarre's public development company. Hithium has already registered a local subsidiary, Hithium Spain Innovation, in Pamplona.

The timing is not coincidental.

The EU's proposed Industrial Accelerator Act, tabled in March 2026, introduces origin requirements mandating that battery energy storage systems in public procurement, support schemes, and renewable energy auctions must be manufactured in the EU. For a company whose overseas sales jumped from 1% to 28.6% of revenue in a single year, producing outside Europe is no longer viable.

Hithium is the world's second-ranked ESS battery cell shipper, with $1.81 billion in revenue last year and $910 million raised to date. Its first facility outside China, a $200 million plant in Mesquite, Texas, opened in May 2025 with 10 GWh capacity. No GWh figure has been disclosed for the Navarre plant.

The factory site has not been confirmed. Spanish media have reported the former BSH plant in Esquíroz as one possibility, aligning with the regional government's reindustrialisation efforts since that closure. The plant may qualify for public subsidies of up to 20% of the investment under European regional aid rules, though no formal allocation has been published.

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez attended the signing ceremony. Spain is now host to three Chinese battery commitments: CATL's €4.1 billion EV cell joint venture with Stellantis in Zaragoza, AESC's $1.1 billion EV plant in Extremadura, and Hithium's BESS factory in Navarre.

The agreement still requires Chinese government approvals for technology and capital transfer. Production is targeted for 2027.

Three Chinese gigafactories in three Spanish regions, each solving a different regulatory problem.

Source: Energy Storage News