FREYR starts preparatory work for Finnish battery plant
The Norwegian battery manufacturer has signed an agreement with the City of Vaasa, Finland, for the temporary lease of 130 hectares – 1,300,000 square metres – of land in the GigaVaasa area. The plot will be the future site of the company's planned battery cell production plant.
Back in 2021, FREYR signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the City of Vaasa, which gave the battery company an exclusive right to a site for a potential battery cell plant. The parties also agreed to explore opportunities for joint site-development to accelerate supply of clean batteries in Finland.
The temporary land lease agreement of the Vaasa plot is 40 hectares larger than the area FREYR reserved in the initial MoU. The agreement enables FREYR to begin soil investigation and preparatory work as a prelude to potential construction. The lease is valid from May 1, 2022, until December 31, 2023, with the option for a one-year extension.
“This lease grants us use of 1.3 million square meters of space in Vaasa, an area that we have previously identified as ideal for our future planned Gigafactory in Finland. There is an ample supply of affordable, renewable energy in this region and convenient proximity to raw materials. That, combined with the country’s highly competent workforce, makes this land lease an important step on the path to potential development,” said Axel Thorsdal, Senior Vice President, Project Development at FREYR in a press release.
The Mayor of Vaasa, Tomas Häyry, says that the city is developing the GigaVaasa area and the battery value chain in stages, and that the progress of the cell plant project is particularly significant
