Norway-based FREYR Battery said it acquired a site in Coweta County, Georgia, for its planned $1.7 billion Giga America battery plant. The company said it plans to launch detailed project engineering in the coming months. 

The first phase is planned to be a cell production module with around 34 GWh of capacity, based on the next-generation of 24M’s U.S.-based SemiSolid production platform. 

The company said it is evaluating other cell production lines that could bring total capital investments to more than $2.6 billion through 2029. 

The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act raised expectations that U.S. demand for ESS, passenger EV and other electric mobility applications will “grow rapidly over the next decade,” said FREYR’s co-founder and CEO Tom Einar Jensen.

The SemiSolid electrode technology was invented in the MIT lab of Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang, and mixes electrolyte with active materials to form a clay-like slurry. The slurry enables the manufacture of thick electrodes with less volume, mass and cost while enabling a simpler manufacturing process. 

The SemiSolid electrode technology was invented at MIT and mixes electrolyte with active materials to form a clay-like slurry. Credit: FREYR

In September, 24M licensed its platform to Fujifilm, which agreed to invest $20 million in the company. The business partnership combines the 24M manufacturing platform with Fujifilm’s precision coating and production technologies and is expected to enable mass production of large-area SemiSolid batteries with high energy density.

FREYR said the total package of financial incentives for Giga America includes assistance provided by the state of Georgia and Coweta County in addition to expected federal production tax credits. It said it also plans to seek Department of Energy grant and/or direct loans to help with the plant’s development.

According to Rystad Energy, annual collective storage demand in the U.S. and Europe is expected to reach 1.4 TWh by 2030, a 34-fold increase from 2022 demand.