International cooperation to push sustainable battery technology
The Norwegian battery company Freyr wants to join forces with Glencore, Caterpillar, Siemens and Nidec to advance the use of sustainable battery solutions in Europe and North America. For example, by looking at areas of common interest along the battery value chain.
Potential areas of strategic collaboration include battery cell manufacturing, pack and module integration, digital and software services, mining and refining, stationary storage applications for the energy market, electric transport, and recycling and end-of-life solutions.
Commodities group Glencore already relies on electric vehicles in some of its mines and had entered into a strategic partnership with battery recycler Li-Cycle last year.
Together, the companies could establish guiding principles, Freyr writes in its press release. These would be a commitment to support their respective sustainability goals “and the decarbonization of our customers’ operations”. In addition, the partners aim to develop novel solutions and service offerings “suited to the low carbon energy system of tomorrow.” Developing “robust, sustainable, and circular supply chains for battery materials and technology” is also on the agenda.
“We are exceedingly pleased to announce the emergence of this new global strategic coalition with four premier global industrial and energy companies,” says Freyr CEO Tom Einar Jensen. “Ultimately, FREYR’s vision for this coalition is to accelerate the energy transition across key sectors by scaling up clean battery production from FREYR’s gigafactories under development, and to incubate and develop innovative technology solutions together.”
Freyr acquired a cell factory site in the US state of Georgia in November, which is expected to come online in the first half of 2024. Based on 24M Technologies’ semi-solid technology, the US factory will produce cells with an initial annual capacity of about 34 GWh.
For its part, Siemens is involved in many areas of e-mobility. At the beginning of the month, the company announced plans to build a battery cell factory with an annual capacity of 12 GWh in the US state of Arizona together with US battery developer Kore Power.
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