Norwegian Battery Maker “Accelerating” U.S. Development Due To Inflation Reduction Act
A Norwegian battery cell producer, FREYR, reached out to us in recent days to share its second-quarter news. What caught my eye especially, though, was what the crafty PR representative put in the email trying to get our attention. She noted that the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) “could be a boon for companies like FREYR Battery (Ticker: FREY), which already has signed deals with three major US-based companies, including Koch Industries, Honeywell and Powin.” Beyond that, the company said that it is “accelerating its development plans in the U.S. based on improving market conditions and the financial incentives attendant to the proposed Inflation Reduction Act” (emphasis added).
That’s right — the bill hasn’t even made it through Congress yet, hasn’t been signed into law by Joe Biden yet, is still in the “hot news” category, yet companies are already responding and accelerating business development plans! That is a strong testament to the value of such legislation. Imagine how much it will alter business plans and shape industry in the coming years. Imagine how many more battery production, clean energy production and installation, and energy efficiency related jobs will be created in the coming decades from this legislation.
The FREYR representative noted that the company is planning a battery gigafactory in the United States right now and that the Norwegian firm has narrowed down the options to five cities. Also, it recently opened up an office in Boston, Massachusetts.
FREYR has a 29 gigawatt-hour (GWh) factory, “Giga Arctic,” under development in Mo i Rana, Norway. (Kudos to FREYR for fun naming. There’s no reason to make a battery factory boring!)
The company is working with Koch Strategic Platforms to plan “Giga America,” which it anticipates having a 35 GWh battery cell production capacity. The gigafactory will use “generation 3 technology from 24M Technologies.”
“Our second quarter was punctuated by the achievement of key milestones, the demonstration of meaningful financial support from the Norwegian Government and other key OECD governmental entities, the consummation of new strategic relationships across the battery value chain, and accelerating commercial momentum,” remarked Tom Einar Jensen, FREYR’s CEO. “As energy security and government-backed decarbonization mandates gain traction in key end markets across Europe and the U.S., we are advancing several strategic initiatives to further our aspirations to become an industrial partner of choice in the clean battery space.”
“Looking ahead to the second half of 2022 and beyond, our team is focused on executing construction of the Customer Qualification Plant and Giga Arctic projects in Mo i Rana, formalizing commitments with our financial, governmental, and strategic partners to accelerate our growth, and increasing our presence across the battery value chain,” concluded Jensen.
How fast will FREYR build Giga America and how fast will it build a second battery gigafactory in the United States? How much has the IRA accelerated those plans? Which companies is FREYR working with, supplying, or looking to work with or supply in the US and Norwegian battery and EV markets? How does FREYR see the U.S. battery mineral mining and processing industries changing as a result of the IRA? These are questions we’ll be following up with FREYR about. Do you have any others to add?
Featured image courtesy of FREYR.
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