Major battery materials plant in Poland to go ahead after Canadian firm buys project rights

Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Canadian private equity firm Kinterra Capital has purchased the rights to a planned 7 billion zloty (€1.63 billion) battery materials plant project in Poland.

The project, which was announced last year and awarded a large grant by the Polish government, had been thrown into doubt after the previous investor, US firm Ascend Elements, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.

The planned facility near the city of Opole, scheduled for completion in 2031, will produce precursor cathode active material (pCAM), a key component in the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles, smartphones and other consumer electronics.

Poland is already Europe’s largest producer of lithium-ion batteries, and behind only China globally. Ascend Elements had previously highlighted the project’s importance in making Europe more independent from Asian suppliers, a sentiment shared by the new ownership.

The plant will help secure “access to critical raw materials”, improve “supply chain security”, and help develop “infrastructure needed to build a modern economy,” said Laura Fernandez, a partner at Kinterra Capital, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Ascend Elements announced its plans to build the plant in May 2025. The project was awarded a government subsidy of 1.22 billion zloty (€285 million), one of the largest Polish state grants ever. The funding was backed by an EU programme supporting the shift to a net-zero economy.

However, in April 2026, Ascend Elements announced that it had launched bankruptcy proceedings in the US, citing “insurmountable” financial challenges. That led to questions about the future of the plant in Poland.

Kinterra Capital, a Canadian private equity firm which invests in critical minerals and infrastructure and manages assets of around $1.5 billion, finalised the takeover of the project in May, reports PAP.

According to PAP, the deal includes intellectual property rights for lithium-ion battery processing, lithium recovery and pCAM production, as well as rights to the grant from the Polish state. Kinterra also signed a conditional agreement to purchase the land plot for the factory near Opole.

“This project has the key advantages we are looking for: a strategic location, access to infrastructure, support from public administration and a strong industrial base in the region,” said Graeme Weeks, Kinterra global head of project execution.

The investment “addresses the most important challenges facing European industry today,” added Fernandez, citing better access to critical minerals, improving supply chains and making Europe more independent.

Poland is home to Europe’s largest battery plant, operated by LG Energy Solution in Wrocław, which accounts for about half of the EU’s total battery production capacity, according to the International Energy Agency.

However, Poland’s position as a global leader in the battery industry is under threat from new EU regulations that will take account of the carbon footprint requires to produce batteries.

Those measures will effectively penalise Poland, which has one of Europe’s most carbon-intensive energy sections, with coal accounting for around half of electricity production. However, the final implementation of the new EU rules has yet to be decided.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

 

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.