2023-11-10 10:14:00
To the unsuspecting passerby, the Rundedal is nothing more than a field, sandwiched between two sun meadows. On one side flows the Runde stream, on the other is the house where Nico Haan has lived for 49 years. From his deep garden you could still clearly see the potato plants in mid-October.
The land is already owned by the municipality of Emmen, he says. He initially wanted to turn it into a horticultural area, with six-meter-high greenhouses around Haan’s garden. In compensation, the municipality allowed him to add a strip of land to his plot. “That is all recorded in the land registry,” he adds. But the greenhouses did not come. A little further on there was a large rose grower, who later went bankrupt again.
The municipality now has new plans, says councilor Guido Rink during an interview. “We want companies here that contribute to a green economy and that offer structural and sustainable employment.”
Ideal for energy-intensive industry
Emmen has a very strong offer. There are few Dutch municipalities that have 145 hectares to allocate at once. Ideal for energy-intensive industry such as a battery factory, hydrogen company or ‘green chemistry’. “New sustainable products and materials will preferably come from Drenthe, or at least from the Northern Netherlands,” says Rink.
That the energy transition offers opportunities to regions that (believe that they have) fallen behind was proven for the first time in Sweden. One of the first battery manufacturers in Europe settled in Skelleftea in the north in 2018. Enough battery cells will soon roll off the assembly line there every year to provide 1 million cars with a battery.
Since then, an eighty-meter-high hotel tower has appeared on the street scene, luxury restaurants, coffee shops and an international school have opened. All this made possible by the more than 1,500 Northvolt employees who already work there. The CEO thinks he will ultimately need 4,000 people. Financial news agency Bloomberg, never averse to bold headlines, now calls the city a ‘green boom town’.
Emmen also wants to become such a green growth city. In addition to land, the municipality has more to offer: Emmen is easily accessible by road and there is already a lot of ‘green chemistry’ within the municipal boundaries. In the future, companies will have plenty of green energy available from the Eemshaven and there are several leading knowledge institutes around the corner, says Rink in his office at the town hall.
Last April he flew to Taiwan for a series of interviews at battery manufacturer Prologium. That company was looking for a location for its first European factory. Initially, Prologium had 90 European municipalities in mind; when Rink boarded the plane, there were only two left besides Emmen. The main other candidate was Dunkirk, a port city in northwestern France. The tour company had heard through its own channels that Dunkirk had been able to make a nice offer to Prologium: a discount on the electricity price for six years, a subsidy worth around 300 million euros.
“We knew that France wanted to dig deep into its pockets, partly to maintain its own car industry,” says Wubbo Everts of the Northern Development Company (NOM), the investment company that promotes new activity in Friesland on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. , Groningen and Drenthe.
The NOM brings the new company into contact with already established companies, local and regional authorities and, if desired, advocates an exemption from profit tax or a rent-free period. Everts often goes through these types of processes and was involved in the discussions in Taiwan, together with Rink, a supporting official from the municipality of Emmen, and deputy Henk Brink of Drenthe.
It’s not just about euros
“You never know exactly what the other country wants to offer,” says Everts. Yet he was “moderately optimistic”: thanks to a special pot of European money, Emmen could approximately match Dunkirk’s offer. And Emmen offered a clearly different advantage: less chance of strikes. “In the big picture, manufacturers are not just concerned with the euros,” says councilor Rink. “In France, unions are powerful and employees quickly leave work in the event of a dispute. We had that to our advantage. The strike rates are much lower.”
It did not help. A month later, on May 12, the then mayor of Dunkirk announced with glee the arrival of the Prologium factory.
“For a long time people said that Dunkirk was dead,” recalled Patrice Vergriete in his speech. And now look: once again he was able to announce that his city had fallen in favor with a major industrialist. Next to him on stage, President Emmanuel Macron, the governor of the region and Prologium CEO Vincent Yang nodded in agreement.
The battery manufacturer promises to invest more than 5 billion euros in the factory, which will ultimately employ around 3,000 people. France is helping the manufacturer with 1.5 billion euros in state aid. Money that Prologium may spend on the development of new battery technology and battery recycling.
Emmen also lost for other reasons
Rink, Veenma and others involved in attracting battery manufacturers think that Dunkirk won because the Netherlands cannot move quickly enough. Not only does the Netherlands have less money available, it is also stuck in different pots, for which there are bureaucratic application procedures. Manufacturers can only claim this once they meet all the conditions, says Rink. “It is the security of money in France, versus the possibility of money in the Netherlands.”
He also believes that the Netherlands should learn from the dedication that the French president shows in such a process by inviting entrepreneurs to his work palace. “If you as a municipality are one of the two or three contenders, the minister or prime minister should take part. That gives more cachet, more confidence that the Netherlands really wants.”
Inquiries around the Rundedal show that Emmen may have lost for two more reasons. The power connection for the energy-intensive industry on the Rundedal has yet to be built. The required high-voltage station only received final approval from the Council of State last summer, after long-term resistance from local residents. The high-voltage station will not be ready until 2027 and ‘green energy’ will be available on site.
Grid operator Tennet believes that it is smarter to locate such factories in places where green energy comes ashore, such as the Eemshaven – not coincidentally the other area that the Northern Netherlands is bringing to the attention of battery manufacturers.
New manufacturers
In addition, the destination of the Rundedal is still horticulture and agriculture, not ‘industry’. Adjustment of the zoning plan is in the ‘exploratory phase’. “Procedures to change the zoning plan are there to protect residents, but can lead to delays in these types of acquisitions,” says Rink. “You simply cannot promise them that they can start construction on January 1. If there is one objector who continues proceedings to the Council of State, it will take you 1.5 years. While those companies want to start producing as quickly as possible.”
Dunkirk not only had more money to offer, the French municipality was also much further along with the paperwork. Ten years ago it started to prepare vacant land for industry. Rink doesn’t really feel like looking back. “Of course I’m disappointed that we didn’t make it, but I quickly put it out of my mind because I have to concentrate on what is important.”
Negotiations with new battery manufacturers, for example. According to another person involved, professor Moniek Tromp of the University of Groningen, discussions are underway with three companies that would like to establish a battery factory in the Northern Netherlands.
One of those parties would be very serious and make the same type of battery as Prologium. “That factory could become very large if it all goes ahead,” says Tromp. In turn, Rink says that the municipality of Emmen is in serious discussions with one party whose name they know. So there they are in the last two. Rink: “It would be nice if we won.”
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