Battery Maker Cancels $2.6B Plant Near Atlanta

Freyr Battery has canceled plans to assemble a $2.6-billion battery manufacturing facility in Coweta County, Ga., as the corporate shifts its focus to photo voltaic manufacturing in Texas. 

Freyr introduced its plans in November 2022 to assemble the Giga America venture plant within the Atlanta suburb of Newnan alongside Interstate 85, set to speculate funds by 2029 and create 720 jobs. 

In a Jan. 21 letter to the county improvement authority, Freyr says “this choice was made reluctantly,” claiming realignment of its “near-term strategic objectives.” 

The information of the plant cancellation follows Freyr’s December-announced acquisition of Trina Photo voltaic’s U.S.-based photo voltaic manufacturing property, together with a 5-GW photo voltaic module plant in Wilmer, Texas, which started manufacturing in November and is predicted to ramp as much as full manufacturing in 2025.

Amy Jaick, Freyr senior vp of communications, mentioned the agency is “focusing in the mean time on the photo voltaic module manufacturing facility in Texas,” including in an e-mail to ENR its announcement earlier this week, “that to be able to be near our Wilmer operations, we’ve chosen Austin as our world headquarters.”

In that Feb. 10 launch, Freyr mentioned the transfer to Texas was finished “to geographically align the corporate’s workforce with its operations and technique” to offer photo voltaic modules made within the U.S.

In the Feb. 10 announcement, Freyr mentioned it has an settlement to promote its 368-acre website in Coweta County to an undisclosed social gathering for $50 million, a deal anticipated to shut Feb. 15. The corporate mentioned it expects to web $22.5 million of that after repaying state and native grants it’ has obtained for the venture. 

The Atlanta Journal-Structure reported in early 2023 that the agency was set to obtain as much as $358 million in complete incentives for the venture, together with $228 million in native tax breaks over 20 years. The county provided a $20 million grant, the state provided $90 million in gross sales tax exemptions and virtually $11 million in tax financial savings by way of credit, whereas a $7-million grant was to offset land acquisition prices. 

It was not clear if the venture additionally obtained federal tax credit or different incentives, and the standing of these.

The 368-acre parcel in an industrial park has room for future enlargement, based on Freyr, which mentioned beforehand that its plans had been following “robust tailwinds in U.S. renewable power improvement, an intensifying concentrate on grid stability initiatives and … tax incentives related to the Inflation Discount Act.” 

Plans known as for an preliminary funding of $1.7-billion, with a cell manufacturing module of roughly 34 GWH, anticipated on the time to be one of many largest battery cell manufacturing developments globally, according to a 2022 Freyr announcement.