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FREYR Battery begins preliminary work in GigaVaasa area - fixed-term lease signed
Published: 18.5.2022
The City of Vaasa and FREYR Battery have signed a fixed-term lease agreement for 130 hectares (1,300,000 m²) of land in the GigaVaasa area. The area is 40 hectares larger than the area reserved for FREYER Battery in the memorandum of understanding (“MoU”). With the lease, FREYR Battery will be able to begin analysing the soil and the environment before potential construction work begins.
The fixed-term lease agreement between the City of Vaasa and FREYR Battery is valid from 1 May 2022 to December 31 2023, with an option for the year 2024.
– With this lease agreement, we will have access to 130 hectares of land in Vaasa, which we have previously seen as an ideal location for our future battery cell plant. The region has plenty of affordable, renewable energy and convenient proximity to raw materials. These things, combined with a skilled workforce, make this lease a major move in the right direction, says Axel Thorsdal, Senior Vice President, Project Development in a FREYR press release.
Mayor Tomas Häyry is pleased with the agreement and the progress of the process.
– We are developing the GigaVaasa area and the battery value chain in stages and, of course, the progress of FREYR Battery’s battery cell factory project is particularly important to us. At the same time, we are developing road and rail connections in the area, Häyry explains with satisfaction.
The FREYR press release also states that the goal of the environmental impact assessment process is to be completed during 2022. After that, the next step would be to make a potential investment decision for Finland’s first battery cell factory of this size. The environmental impact assessment examines the effects of a potential plant on the surrounding nature.
Read the FREYR Battery press release (in English)
GigaVaasa Area Timeline:
- April 2021: First reservation for the GigaVaasa area: Johnson Matthey selected Vaasa as the location for a sustainable battery materials plant.
- August 2021: FREYR Battery selected Vaasa as the location of a battery cell plant, a memorandum of understanding (“MoU”) was signed for a 90-hectare plot.
- November 2021: Johnson Matthey announces the sale of its battery materials business. However, Vaasa continues negotiations with the company’s new owner.
- January 2022: Grafintec Oy and Epsilon Advanced signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Vaasa to build a plant to produce anode materials for the battery industry in the GigaVaasa area.
- January 2022: FREYR Battery’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) commences
- May 2022: FREY Battery and the City of Vaasa enter into a fixed-term lease agreement for 130 hectares of land.