Two companies attempting to set up gigawatt-scale lithium battery factories have canceled their plans for American manufacturing. KORE Power confirmed to local news that it was abandoning its 12-GWh factory plan in Buckeye, Arizona, and FREYR just revealed it would sell its ESS manufacturing site in Georgia.
KORE Power first announced its Arizona manufacturing plans in 2021. The goal was to hire 3,000 people at the 1 million ft2 site to make both NMC and LFP battery cells for the EV and ESS markets. The company has U.S. intellectual property but makes its batteries through a Chinese contract manufacturer. After receiving investments from Siemens and Quanta Services, KORE planned to break ground on the Arizona site in 2023. Construction never began, and now the company is pivoting to find an already-built site to move into.
Norwegian-born FREYR chose a site in Coweta County, Georgia, to establish lithium battery cell manufacturing and was working toward a loan from the Dept. of Energy for the $1.7 billion project. The company made a surprising move in late 2024, buying Trina Solar’s panel assembly operations in Texas. FREYR is now focusing primarily on solar panel manufacturing, even dropping “Battery” from its company name. FREYR said it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the Georgia site to an undisclosed party for $50 million, which should be finalized on Feb. 15, 2024.
