LITHIUM Werks BV, a startup founded by Dutch entrepreneur Kees Koolen, said late Tuesday it had signed a 1.6-billion-euro (US$1.85 billion) deal to build a new storage battery plant in China.

Koolen said the agreement included project financing of 15-30 percent by Chinese or regional financing sources, 50 percent from development banks, and the remainder by Lithium Werks and its equity investors.

The factory will be able to produce batteries with 500 GWh storage capacity per year by 2030.

“There’s a big appetite from investors for such projects and such companies, so we have a lot of people interested to make sure we have enough equity,” Koolen said. “This is just the first project we’re going to do.”

The agreement is one of several commercial deals announced as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met Tuesday in the Hague.

Koolen has invested 41 million euros into Lithium Werks and currently holds a 50-percent stake, though he expects that to be diluted as it grows.

Koolen predicted the battery storage market would eventually be far larger than the market for electric cars.

The factory is to be built on a 60-hectare site in the Yangtze River Delta in cooperation with China’s Zhejiang Jiashan Economic and Technological Development Zone Industry Corp.

(SD-Agencies)