A Norwegian Battery Maker Is Moving To The U.S. To Tap Federal Incentives

Freyr, a struggling Norwegian startup hoping to become a global battery powerhouse using a highly automated cell production system, got shareholder approval to become a U.S. company by the end of 2023, which will help it seek federal incentives for clean energy projects.

A majority of investors voted in favor of redomiciling Freyr to Delaware from Luxembourg at a meeting on Friday, the company said in an emailed statement. It had previously announced its intention to move to the U.S. in August, to position itself “to better respond to global tax developments and U.S. incentive programs for battery manufacturers.” It said the change would also simplify its corporate structure and streamline financial reporting requirements.

The approval “will pave the way for us to realize the previously announced benefits to shareholders,” said Tom Einar Jensen, Freyr cofounder and executive chairperson.

Named for the Norse god of fertility, Freyr is currently building Giga America, a $2.5 billion battery plant in Coweta County, Georgia, southwest of Atlanta, that will produce cells for use in stationary energy storage systems, electric vehicles and marine products. The company is prioritizing the U.S. plant over Giga Arctic, a partially built battery factory in Norway, saying last month it will minimize investment there in 2024.

Funding for clean energy projects and battery manufacturing in the U.S. created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act has spurred dozens of announcements for new multibillion-dollar battery plants across the country, from General Motors, Ford and Tesla to Toyota, Honda and Hyundai in the past two years. At the same time, tighter new rules that materials used in battery anodes and cathodes of EV batteries be sourced in North America, rather than from China or Russia, to receive tax credits are creating opportunities for companies like Redwood Materials and Sila to supply them.

Freyr opened a small-scale factory line early this year in Mo I Rana, Norway, to start making pouch-type “SemiSolid” lithium-ion cells developed by battery researcher 24M Technologies that it hopes will be up to 25% cheaper than conventional cells when produced in high volume. The company has said its Georgia plant will have the capacity to churn out 34-gigawatt hours of batteries annually when it opens in a few years.

Freyr, with shares already listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is the first battery maker to redomicile in the U.S. since the Biden Administration amped up manufacturing programs to reduce climate-warming carbon emissions from a range of industries.