Lars is a Swedish-born entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience across multiple industries, with particular focus on real estate and recently green industrialisation. He is passionate about supporting the global energy transition to power the world more sustainability and is a strong advocate of advancing low carbon energy solutions. Lars believes that battery cell factories can be used as a dual-track solution for advancing the energy transition and economic development. He advocates for building battery cell factories in areas which have experienced economic decline or underinvestment. By focusing development in these areas, battery cell plants can help generate employment opportunities and deliver direct and indirect economic benefits. In 2021, Lars founded a company that plans to build a 45GWh battery plant in Italy, which will be the country’s largest, independent, battery cell factory. The battery cell factory will focus on creating new opportunities for re-skilling and upskilling workers in Italy’s automotive industry. Italvolt is supporting the green industrialisation of Italy, and Europe, more widely, by delivering battery cells which will help drive decarbonisation across a variety of industries. In 2022, Lars founded Statevolt, which is planning to build a 54 GWh battery factory in Imperial Valley, California. The Statevolt project will focus on developing a new, ‘hyper-local’ business model for battery development. The arrangement will see the business source its key feedstock, lithium, and power, from local sources, to minimize the environmental impact of production and build a more sustainable and secure supply chain. The unifying aim of Lars’ work in building battery cell plants is to support economic regeneration, green industrialization, and good jobs, in Italy and USA.