Two companies plan to purchase 50GWh of energy storage batteries from Norwegian company FREYR

　　Tom Jensen, CEO of Norwegian lithium-ion battery start-up FREYR Battery, said in an interview with industry media that the company's gigafactory could use half of its 100GWh capacity target for energy storage systems by 2030, and will also introduce system integration business.

　　Founded in 2018, FREYR plans to build four super plants in MoI Rana, Norway, with a total annual capacity of 36GWh, which will be online from 2023 to 2025. But unlike other players in the battery industry, FREYR's battery products are mainly supplied to the energy storage industry.

　　Jensen said, “Our goal is to have 83GWh of annual capacity by 2028 and over 100GWh by 2030, and based on where we are now, we think that half of the batteries produced can be put into the energy storage market by 2030.” He explained that FREYR The company's technology to manufacture batteries, licensed from US-based battery producer 24M, is well suited for energy storage applications and therefore targets all market segments of battery energy storage systems.

　　Jensen said: “We believe that the battery storage market is growing much faster and will be much larger than most people think. So, if we want to, we can actually put all the capacity into the storage market. But we also have a lot of interest in the mobile and electric vehicle markets, so the final percentage of our capacity will depend on how the market develops.”

　　Honeywell will buy 19GWh batteries from FREYR between 2023 and 2030, while another unnamed partner will buy 31GWh batteries over the same period, which will allow FREYR to contribute to its systems integration business. The importance of the energy storage market as the company's main market is clear from this fact

　　“We want to form a joint venture with a partner to develop a containerized energy storage solution, which includes other products such as a battery management system (BMS),” Jensen said. “This will effectively be a system integration approach to working with the partner.”

　　The gigafactory REYR plans to build in the next few years

　　Norway is one of the few countries to achieve its goal of 100% renewable energy thanks to its abundance of hydroelectric power. Electricity for FREYR's batteries will come almost entirely from renewable hydroelectric facilities, but also some from wind, Jensen said.

　　Jensen also touched on three large discussion topics in the battery energy storage space and in the wider battery ecosystem: Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) vs. Nickel Manganese Cobalt Ternary Lithium (NMC) Pros and Cons Debate, Lithium Battery Materials Supply Chain issues and battery sustainability, these are the main principles followed by FREYR.

　　Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery (LFP) vs Nickel Manganese Cobalt Ternary Lithium Battery (NMC)

　　Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries will become increasingly It is increasingly adopted by the battery energy storage industry.

　　“Our technology platform is flexible,” Jensen said. “Our first gigafactory will meet customer demand to produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which we are seeing increasing interest from many automotive stakeholders. The more interested. Customers are also interested in the production of nickel-manganese-cobalt ternary lithium batteries (NMC) we produce. But to the extent we use cobalt, it will be done in a responsible and sustainable way through our partnership with Glencore purchase."

　　He pointed out that compared with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries with lower energy density are not as important in the energy storage environment of the number of charge and discharge, and because of the ability to choose to produce larger batteries, 24M's technology also has advantages.

　　However, supply chain issues have caused the price of lithium iron phosphate batteries to be temporarily flat or even lower than that of nickel-manganese-cobalt ternary lithium batteries (NMC) for the first time.

　　"What we're seeing right now is a temporary bottleneck, and of course, it's challenging in terms of near-term pricing, but we're having conversations with our customers and working out business arrangements to deal with material price increases," Jensen said. I think all battery manufacturers are facing the same challenges. So relatively speaking, the price of battery products will become more expensive, but the relative cost advantage of this technology is still the same.”

　　SES Power agrees with Jensen's point of view that the battery energy storage industry is now in the early stage of rapid growth, and the lithium battery industry is also in a period of renewal, such as the latest subversive all-solid-state lithium batteries, sodium-ion batteries, 4680 lithium batteries, etc. The purpose of these new lithium battery technologies is almost always based on safety and cost considerations. Also because the lithium battery energy storage system, especially the lithium iron phosphate battery, has reached a critical point of profitability, SES Power has launched 12V100Ah, 24V100Ah, 36V100Ah, 48V100Ah of square aluminum-shell lithium iron phosphate batteries using EVE, CATL, and BYD, household energy storage 3KW, 5KW systems, rack-mounted energy storage systems and other products.

　　Of course, we also see some requirements for lithium batteries that are quite demanding in the environment. We also launch lithium iron phosphate batteries that can be used normally under -40 degrees Celsius. This is very suitable for some outdoor lithium battery energy storage projects.