FREYR Battery, a European startup developing advanced lithium-ion battery cells for mass production, has signed a 31GWh off-take agreement with an energy storage system manufacturer.
One of about two dozen established and new players seeking to create gigafactories in Europe, Norway’s FREYR wants to initially build out production capacity at four factories powered by renewable energy, including its home country’s abundant hydropower resources.
Work is already underway on its initial 2GWh plant in Mo i Rana, Norway and the company has signed a technology partnership with US advanced battery tech company 24M, developer of a novel manufacturing platform called SemiSolid.
Battery cells made using the platform have thicker electrodes than other types and can be much higher energy density with lower production costs than other cells, the companies have claimed.
FREYR said yesterday that it has signed the deal to supply “at least 31GWh” of its low-carbon battery cells to a publicly-listed manufacturer and provider of energy storage systems (ESS).
The customer’s name has not been disclosed at this stage, but it is FREYR’s first “significant” off-take deal, CEO Tom Jensen said.
Cells will be delivered over five years from 2023 to 2028, from FREYR’s manufacturing facilities in Norway and the battery company forecasted the deal could be worth about US$3 billion.
“This development advances us towards a final investment decision, the start of construction on our initial Gigafactories, and industrial-scale commercialisation of FREYR’s clean battery cells,” Jensen said.
“The combination of FREYR’s next-generation clean battery production and our new partner’s deep ESS project expertise should provide industrial and utility customers with differentiated, integrated solutions in the battery storage markets globally.”
The Norwegian company is targeting 43GWh of battery cell manufacturing capacity by 2025, then up to 83GWh annual production capacity by 2028. Earlier this year it formed a joint venture (JV) with Koch Strategic Platforms to investigate the possibility of building 50GWh of manufacturing capacity in the US by 2030 using the 24M platform.
FREYR’s closest geographical rival, Northvolt — itself already building a gigafactory in Sweden and targeting 150GWh annual production capacity by 2030 — recently signed up to a partnership with major energy storage system and technology provider Fluence. That partnership includes off-take as well as a collaboration on developing stationary energy storage solutions.