FREYR Battery, a developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity, has announced that the company has been awarded a €100 million grant from the European Union (“EU”) to support development of FREYR’s Giga Arctic project in Norway. The grant will be funded through the EU’s Innovation Fund (“EUIF”) as part of the EU’s efforts to promote localized production of battery solutions.
“We are delighted with the news we have received from the EU’s Innovation Fund to support FREYR’s Giga Arctic project,” remarked Tom Einar Jensen, FREYR’s Co-Founder and CEO. “This grant is a recognition that batteries represent the key catalyst of the energy transition supporting regional energy security through faster deployment of renewable energy. Moreover, this significant financial commitment provides timely support to continued development of the Giga Arctic project, which is intended to bring clean battery products to our customers and partners across Europe. We look forward to working with the EUIF as well as the Norwegian Government to unlock further momentum for next generation battery production capacity at GWh scale in Norway.”
Giga Arctic, which has been under development since FREYR’s Board of Directors sanctioned the start of construction in June 2022, is designed to be a 29 GWh nameplate capacity facility based on the 24M Technologies SemiSolidTM manufacturing platform and powered with 100% renewable hydroelectricity.
According to a report recently published by Minviro, a life cycle assessment company and independent third-party commissioned by FREYR, the annual production at the planned Giga Arctic facility in Norway could enable FREYR’s customers to mitigate 80 million tons of CO2 emissions over the batteries’ lifetime when used for renewable Energy Storage Systems (ESS). The projected emissions mitigation corresponds to almost twice the total amount of CO2 emitted in Norway annually.
The broad support from the EU’s innovation fund shows that Norwegian industry and business are very close to innovation and technology development. The five projects that receive support all point towards the transformation we are facing as a society. Enova supports those who go ahead and there is therefore every reason to congratulate, says CEO of Enova Nils Kristian Nakstad
The EU’s Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding opportunities for projects designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fund targets highly innovative technologies and large-scale, flagship initiatives that can bring more value to Europe in terms of transitioning to a low-carbon continent.