Norwegian gigafactory firm Freyr has signed a definitive license and services agreement to use 24M’s SemiSolid lithium-ion battery platform technology at its planned facilities in Mo i Rana, Norway.
24M has drastically reduced the number of steps required to manufacture traditional battery cells, while still using conventional lithium-ion raw materials.
Freyr expects this will reduce the capital expenditures and enable ‘substantial operational cost saving’ while increasing production throughput through a highly flexible production platform that works across all chemistries and can be re-tooled for various sized batteries and cathode and anode chemistries.
Tom Jensen, the CEO of Freyr, said: “24M has fundamentally redesigned the traditional lithium-ion cell technology and production platform, delivering higher energy density per battery while enabling substantial reduction in capex, operating costs, CO2 emissions and physical footprint of the manufacturing facility as compared to conventional solutions.”
In June 2019, Japan firm Kyocera began pilot production of 24M’s SemiSolid battery technology to validate its use in residential energy storage systems in the Japanese market.
Freyr is targeting the development of more than 40GWh of scalable, modular battery cell production capacity via a phased development approach using deep partnership-based strategies, including in-licensing of next generation technologies.
In December, Freyr signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with mining company Glencore International for the potential supply of ethically sourced and traceable raw materials.