Freyr seeks to make headway on battery cell factory in Finland

Freyr Battery (NYSE:FREY) announced on Friday that it has applied for environmental approval of a planned battery cell plant to be built on the west coast of Finland.

The Norwegian company has submitted its proposal to the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centre), which is part of a network of regional bodies implementing the Finnish government's development policies.

Freyr opted to build the facility near the city of Vaasa, which can supply affordable renewable energy and is close to sources of raw materials. In August 2021, the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with each of state-owned Finnish Minerals Group and the Vaasa municipality to secure a 90-hectare (900,000 square metres) site.

The battery cells developer hopes to conclude the environmental impact assessment procedure by the end of 2022, paving the way for a subsequent final investment decision for what it plans as Finland’s first battery cell production facility on a gigawatt-hour (GWh) scale.

The move comes as Freyr is already working on the construction of the first facility of its Gigafactory complex in Mo i Rana, Norway, while also exploring the potential development of industrial-scale battery cell production in the US as part of a recently-formed joint venture with Koch Strategic Platforms.

These plans are meant to enable Freyr to deliver up to 43 GWh of battery cell capacity by 2025, boosting that to up to 83 GWh by 2028.

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