FREYR Battery Begins Preparatory Work in Vaasa, Finland
18 May 2022 - 10:00PM
Business Wire
FREYR Battery (NYSE:
FREY) (“FREYR”), a developer of
clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity, has signed
an agreement with the City of Vaasa, Finland, for the temporary
lease of 130 hectares (1,300,000 m²) of land in the GigaVaasa area.
This plot is the future site of FREYR’s planned battery cell
production plant and part of the company’s strategic collaboration
with the City of Vaasa to develop industrial scale battery
technology and production in the country.
In 2021, FREYR signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding
(“MoU”) with the City of Vaasa, providing FREYR with an exclusive
right to a site for a potential battery cell plant with the aim to
explore opportunities for joint site-development to accelerate
supply of clean batteries in Finland. The temporary land lease
agreement of the Vaasa plot is 40 hectares larger than the area
FREYR reserved in the initial MoU, to increase the company’s
efforts to accelerate supply to meet the expected increasing demand
for localized and decarbonized battery solutions.
The agreement now enables FREYR to begin soil investigation and
preparatory work as a prelude to potential construction. The lease
is valid from May 1, 2022, until December 31, 2023, with the option
for a one-year extension.
“This lease grants us use of 1.3 million square meters of space
in Vaasa, an area that we have previously identified as ideal for
our future planned Gigafactory in Finland. There is an ample supply
of affordable, renewable energy in this region and convenient
proximity to raw materials. That, combined with the country’s
highly competent workforce, makes this land lease an important step
on the path to potential development,” said Axel Thorsdal, Senior
Vice President, Project Development at FREYR.
Mayor of Vaasa, Tomas Häyry, shared his perspectives on the
contract and the ongoing planning efforts. “We are developing the
GigaVaasa area and the battery value chain in stages, and
naturally, the progress of the cell plant project is particularly
significant. At the same time, road and rail line connections are
being developed in the area.”
Prior to this land lease, FREYR commenced an Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA) for its Vaasa project. The EIA is an
essential step towards understanding the impact that the proposed
factory may have on the local environment. The target is to
conclude the assessment procedure before the end of 2022 with a
subsequent potential investment decision in Finland’s first
Gigawatt hour scale battery cell facility.
“With this agreement, we can now begin the work to clear routes
for our ground investigations, which include assessing the soil and
the local environment, prior to any potential construction. This is
a critical step in our battery development strategy in Finland,”
Thorsdal adds.
About FREYR Battery
FREYR Battery aims to provide industrial scale clean battery
solutions to reduce global emissions. Listed on the New York Stock
Exchange, FREYR’s mission is to produce green battery cells to
accelerate the decarbonization of energy and transportation systems
globally. FREYR has commenced building the first of its planned
factories in Mo i Rana, Norway and announced potential development
of industrial scale battery cell production in Vaasa, Finland and
the United States. FREYR intends to deliver up to 43 GWh of battery
cell capacity by 2025 and up to 83 GWh annual capacity by 2028. To
learn more about FREYR, please visit www.freyrbattery.com.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking
Statements
All statements, other than statements of present or historical
fact included in this press release, including, without limitation,
statements regarding (i) the development, timeline, capacity and
other usefulness of FREYR’s planned battery cell production plant,
Gigafactory and battery development strategy in Finland and the
Vaasa site, (ii) the timeline for FREYR’s supply of clean batteries
in Finland, (iii) any potential benefits of the Vaasa site for
FREYR, including its ample supply of affordable, renewable energy
and convenient proximity to raw materials and (iv) any potential
benefits of FREYR’s battery development strategy in Finland are
forward-looking and involve significant risks and uncertainties
that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the
expected results.
Most of these factors are outside FREYR’s control and difficult
to predict. Information about factors that could materially affect
FREYR is set forth under the “Risk Factors” section in (i) FREYR’s
Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on August 9, 2021, as amended, (ii)
FREYR’s annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission on March 9, 2022 and (iii) in other SEC filings
available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220518005701/en/
Investor contact: Jeffrey Spittel Vice President,
Investor Relations jeffrey.spittel@freyrbattery.com Tel: (+1)
281-222-0161 Media contact: Katrin Berntsen Vice President,
Communication and Public Affairs katrin.berntsen@freyrbattery.com
Tel: (+47) 920 54 570
FREYR Battery (NYSE:FREY.WS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2024 to Nov 2024
FREYR Battery (NYSE:FREY.WS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Nov 2023 to Nov 2024