FREYR Battery (NYSE: FREY) has scrapped plans to build a $2.6 billion battery energy storage system factory in Coweta County, Georgia – here’s why.
FREYR told officials in the Atlanta suburb of Newnan on Thursday that it wouldn’t build the “Giga America” battery factory in Georgia that was expected to employ more than 700 people. The company, incentivized by the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act tax credits and robust renewables growth, moved its headquarters from Norway to Georgia and announced the battery factory in 2023.
The Newnan Times-Herald, which broke the story, said FREYR cited climbing interest rates, falling battery prices, and change in leadership at the company – or, as stated in a letter to the county authority, a “realignment of near-term strategic goals.”
FREYR announced today that it’s entered into a definitive agreement to sell the Georgia battery factory’s 368-acre site to an undisclosed party for gross sales proceeds of $50 million. The transaction is expected to close on February 15. Estimated net proceeds to FREYR are expected to total $22.5 million following repayment of previously received state and local grants.
In August, then-CEO Tom Einar Jensen told investors that a surplus of cheap Chinese batteries had made it harder to raise money to manufacture batteries, so the company switched its focus to solar panel manufacturing.
On December 24, FREYR announced that it had closed its acquisition of Trina Solar’s 5-gigawatt (GW), 1.35 million-square-foot solar panel factory in Wilmer, Texas. The purchase solidified FREYR’s transformation from a European battery company into a US solar company.
The company also announced today that it’s moving its global corporate headquarters to Austin.
Read more: Chinese solar giant Trina sells its Texas factory a week after it opens
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