FREYR announced that it has selected and purchased a site in Coweta County, Georgia for multi-phase Giga America clean battery manufacturing project, which will be developed in multiple phases. In the first phase it plans to produce approximately 34 GWh with an estimated capital investment of $1.7 billion. Additional investment may amount to $2.6 billion by 2029, the company estimates. Over the lifetime of the project more than 720 U.S. jobs will be created in Georgia.
The company purchased 368 acres of land at the Bridgeport Industrial Park site, with options for further expansion. FREYR had plans to manufacture in the United States, but those plans were accelerated based on the strength of the U.S. renewable energy and electric vehicle industries coupled with recently announced tax incentives associated with the Inflation Reduction Act. FREYR intends to apply for grants or loans from the U.S. Department of Energy to assist with development of the gigafactory. The company reported that is has also received “robust assistance” from the State of Georgia and Coweta County.
FREYR is using the SemiSolid battery production technology was developed by 24M Technologies, a spinout from MIT in Cambridge, Mass. The 24M process has reportedly simplified lithium-ion battery production with a design that requires up to 80% less of the inactive materials, such as copper and aluminum, and fewer manufacturing steps. The process reduces manufacturing costs by up to 40%, according to 24M. Its solution is a semi-solid flow battery in which the gooey electrodes are mixed directly into the electrolyte, eliminating the energy-intensive process of drying and solidifying the electrodes in traditional lithium-ion production.
The company currently has a gigafactory under construction in Norway called the Giga Arctic project. With a planned nameplate capacity of 29 GWh, its battery technology will also be based on the 24M production platform. The U.S. project team intends to replicate major elements of the Giga Arctic development, and maintain a continuous dialog with personnel in Norway.
“Today’s landmark announcement underscores FREYR’s ambition to develop a very strong and near-term operational footprint in the United States. Expanding into the U.S. has been a foundational aspect of FREYR’s long-term strategy from our inception, and with the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, we expect U.S. demand for ESS, passenger EV and other electric mobility applications to grow rapidly over the next decade,” commented Tom Einar Jensen, co-founder and chief executive officer of FREYR.
FREYR is headquartered in Norway. Construction is underway in Norway and now planned for the U.S., the company also intends to build a factory in Finland. FREYR has a goal of 50GWh of battery cell capacity by 2025 and 100 GWh annual capacity by 2028 and 200 GWh of annual capacity by 2030.
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