NEW YORK & OSLO, Norway & NEWNAN, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FREYR Battery (NYSE: FREY) (“FREYR” or the “Company”), a developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity, has provided an update this morning on the Company’s operational progress at the Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”) in Mo i Rana, Norway.
FREYR conducts successful unit cell production trials at CQP
FREYR’s teams, vendors, and partners at the CQP have reached the Company’s most significant technical milestone to date by producing unit cells with the full functionality of the Casting and Unit Cell Assembly machine, the novel component of the SemiSolid™ platform. While significant work remains to further streamline automation, improve material composition, and to complete the final stages of commissioning, this accomplishment marks the completion of critical path equipment commissioning and is expected to enable FREYR to begin increasing production speeds and manufacturing multi-layer battery sample cells in Q2 2024.
“This is a material step forward for our team at Asset Mo. Having demonstrated our ability to manufacture cells with the next-generation Casting and Unit Cell Assembly, we are now poised to move into trial production using a continuous process. This next milestone will then enable our teams to perform data and performance analysis of the unit cells, surge production speeds, and proceed to manufacturing mechanically complete sample cells in Q2,” commented Mike Brose, FREYR’s Head of the Asset Mo team. “Today’s announcement is a reflection of the tremendous collective effort by FREYR’s people, vendors, and partners in Mo – I wish to thank and congratulate everyone involved for their dedication, creativity, and selflessness in helping us reach this important milestone.”
Overview of the SemiSolidTM manufacturing process
Unlike conventional lithium-ion battery manufacturing, which involves producing electrodes on separate equipment before assembling them into cells which are subsequently filled with electrolyte, the SemiSolidTM technology employs a continuous and integrated process. The SemiSolidTM process starts with electrode coating and proceeds to electrode stacking. The next-generation SemiSolidTM production line equipment (“PLE”) then creates independent “unit cells,” each containing a cathode, anode, and separator.
The subsequent steps required to produce a complete cell in a pouch – which is a stack of multiple unit cells, have already been developed and validated on the SemiSolidTM platform. As such, today’s announcement that FREYR and its partners have begun producing these unit cells with the full automation of the Casting and Unit Cell Assembly constitutes a significant technical achievement.
“On behalf of the Mpac team, I extend our congratulations to FREYR on achieving this important milestone,” commented Adam Holland, CEO of Mpac Group plc. “Mpac is proud to contribute to FREYR’s mission to create a sustainable future with next-generation battery technology.”
This production trial was enabled by the successful integration of casting webs across the cathode, anode, and merge units of the Casting and Unit Assembly equipment using the highly advanced Multi-Carrier System (“MCS”), which is the largest of its kind globally according to FREYR’s automation partner Siemens AG.
Brian Holliday, Managing Director at Siemens Digital Industries, commented, “This has been an amazing team effort between FREYR, Mpac, Festo and Siemens working together at the leading edge to highly automate battery production. The result is a huge step forward for a next generation technology that is designed to enhance the industry’s sustainability.”
Next steps at the CQP
Following this successful production trial at the CQP, FREYR is following a three-step road map to producing sample cells in Q2 2024:
- Conduct a cell production trial using a continuous process with no interruptions to fine tune the equipment;
- Surge production speeds for short periods of time to demonstrate GWh scale manufacturing capability for the casting of electrodes; and
- Produce multi-layer, mechanically in-spec pouch battery sample cells in Q2 2024.
“I am proud to report this latest achievement at the CQP,” added Birger Steen, FREYR’s Chief Executive Officer. “By proving our ability to navigate electromechanical challenges of producing batteries on novel manufacturing equipment, we are demonstrating FREYR’s technical and operational qualifications as an emerging industrialization partner of choice in the battery industry. The team is now moving to the next step on our road map, which is to replicate what we have just done in a continuous process before commencing production of multi-layer pouch battery sample cells.”
The CQP’s long-range potential
Conventional lithium-ion battery technology is estimated to account virtually all the current global commercial production, with only 6% originating from the U.S, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency. As such, the development of novel, U.S.-based technologies such as the SemiSolidTM platform has the potential to enhance regional energy security and long-term competitiveness of U.S. battery producers. In conjunction with today’s milestone, FREYR is evaluating additional opportunities to leverage the CQP to incubate additional technological advances in cooperation with key stakeholders in the U.S.
“Today, we have demonstrated the ability of FREYR’s teams and global partners to scale a novel U.S. IP centric battery technology platform,” said Tom Einar Jensen, Co-founder and Executive Chair of FREYR. “As complex and difficult as any battery scaling journey is, we are very much aware that our work is just beginning, even though this represents a proud moment for the company.”
Mr. Jensen added, “The cost of imported battery solutions to our target markets are highly dynamic, so the development of U.S. origin technologies at scale is critical if the U.S. is to establish a viable competitive position in the global battery ecosystem. Currently, 95% of battery solutions for the energy storage market are imported from Asia. With the energy transition accelerating in the U.S., homegrown supply of critical energy infrastructure is a fundamental pillar to regional energy security as well as job creation and sustained economic growth. Our aspiration is that the CQP, as a first of its kind facility based on U.S. Intellectual Property, could ultimately serve a unique role as a center of innovation and scaling platform for competitive battery solutions and the backbone of a new, increasingly localized energy system.”
About FREYR Battery
FREYR Battery is a developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity. The Company’s mission is to accelerate the decarbonization of global energy and transportation systems by producing sustainable, cost-competitive batteries. FREYR seeks to serve the primary markets of energy storage systems (“ESS”) and commercial mobility, and the Company maintains an ambition to serve the passenger electric vehicles market (“EV”). FREYR is operating its Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”) for technology development in Mo i Rana, Norway, and the Company is commencing development of the Giga America battery manufacturing project in Coweta County, Georgia, in the U.S. 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 letter, including, without limitation, the development, construction, timeline, capacity, and other usefulness of FREYR Battery’s (“FREYR”) production facilities or gigafactories; FREYR’s ability to complete cell production trial using a continuous process, surge production speeds to demonstrate GWh scale manufacturing capability for the casting of electrodes, and to produce multi-layer pouch battery sample cells in its Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”) and to achieve targeted improvements and the commencement of automated production of sample cells ; FREYR’s ability to complete the technical requirements to stay on track with its anticipated completion cadence at the CQP; FREYR’s ability to carry out any successful future trials, implementation or integration of cathode testing and other technology to reach automated cell production; and the implementation and effectiveness of FREYR’s overall business and technology strategies are forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements 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 are difficult to predict. Additional 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-3 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on September 1, 2022, (ii) FREYR Battery, Inc.’s Registration Statement on Form S-4 filed with the SEC on September 8, 2023 and subsequent amendments thereto filed on October 13, 2023, October 19, 2023, and October 31, 2023, (iii) FREYR’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 29, 2024, and (iv) FREYR’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 8, 2024 and available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, FREYR disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements, all of which are expressly qualified by the statements in this section, to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this presentation. Should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and projections could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements.
FREYR intends to use its website as a channel of distribution to disclose information which may be of interest or material to investors and to communicate with investors and the public. Such disclosures will be included on FREYR’s website in the ‘Investor Relations’ sections. FREYR also intends to use certain social media channels, including, but not limited to, X (former Twitter) and LinkedIn, as means of communicating with the public and investors about FREYR, its progress, products, and other matters. While not all the information that FREYR posts to its digital platforms may be deemed to be of a material nature, some information may be. As a result, FREYR encourages investors and others interested to review the information that it posts and to monitor such portions of FREYR’s website and social media channels on a regular basis, in addition to following FREYR’s press releases, SEC filings, and public conference calls and webcasts. The contents of FREYR’s website and other social media channels shall not be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.