Trina Solar launched solar module production in Wilmer, Texas, in November, before Trina’s U.S. manufacturing assets were acquired by Freyr.
Photo courtesy of Trina Solar
Reporter Laura Camper of the Newnan Times-Herald reported last week that the $2.6 billion lithium-ion storage battery manufacturing facility planned by Norway’s Freyr will no longer be pursued, even as the company moves forward on other clean energy projects such as the acquisition of Trina Solar’s U.S. manufacturing assets, including a solar module manufacturing plant in Wilmer, Texas, where China-based Trina launched production in November.
The good news for Texas continued this morning as Freyr announced that it is locating its corporate headquarters in Austin. “As we move forward with our strategy to build an integrated American solar + storage manufacturing network,” FREYR Chairman of the Board and CEO Daniel Barcelo said, “we intend to bring more than 1,000 new American jobs to the Texas economy. We look forward to building our teams in Austin and Wilmer, establishing a Texas job creation engine, and working with our partners across industry and government to invest in critical U.S. infrastructure.” This January 2024 Site Selection Investment Profile of Wilmer includes insights into why Trina and others have invested in the community.
In the same announcement this morning, Freyr stated it had “entered into a definitive agreement to sell its 368-acre site in Coweta County, Georgia, to an undisclosed party for gross sales proceeds of $50 million.” Estimated net proceeds to the company are expected to total $22.5 million following repayment of previously received state and local grants. Coweta County Development Authority Sarah Jacobs told the Newnan Times-Herald that the repayment process built into performance-based incentives for the Georgia project “really shows the value of that approach that we took. That ensures the taxpayers were protected through our built-in clawbacks and safeguards.”
Freyr’s Georgia project was among the hundreds being tracked by E2 on its clean energy project investment tracker that has documented all clean energy projects announced since the 2022 signing of the Inflation Reduction Act. As of mid-December, Michigan, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas, in that order, were the leaders by number of projects, continuing the lead they displayed when a Site Selection Snapshot looked in on the scorecard in August 2023.
SITE SELECTION RECOMMENDS
Robotics and Automation Total Sales 2015-2025
Graph and photo courtesy of VDMA
VDMA Robotics + Automation reports that robotics and automation in Germany have lost competitiveness, forecasting a 9% drop in sales for 2025 after a 6% drop in 2024. “The downward trend is not based solely on cyclical fluctuations in demand, but now has very tangible structural causes,” said Dr. Dietmar Ley, chairman of VDMA Robotics + Automation. “These include, for example, the robotics and automation industry being too dependent on the German automotive industry. In addition, there are weaknesses in competitiveness that business and politics must address with consistent reforms.”
Dr. Dietmar Ley
While complimentary of the EU Commission’s general intentions of making Europe more competitive through red tape reduction, more venture capital attraction and other measures, Ley said, “The competition compass tends to treat symptoms and threatens to get bogged down in a multitude of individual measures and sectoral aid. A competition strategy for European industry must not get lost in aid for the sectors currently in crisis, but must fundamentally strengthen Europe as a business location. There must be no cherry-picking of industries.”
Learn the reasons from Grace Rains, executive director of The Conductor, a public-private partnership between the University of Central Arkansas and Startup Junkie Consulting.
Through both grants and employee initiatives, Salt River Project in Arizona is one of a multitude of organizations that will honor International Day of Women and Girls in Science tomorrow, February 11. Among the projects SRP is connected to is Desert WAVE (Women in Autonomous Vehicle Engineering), an all-female robotics team comprising current and recent graduates of Arizona State University, which is making improvements to autonomous underwater robots Dragon and Baby Dragon. “This team, who became world champions at the International Robosub Competition in August 2024, made history as the first all-women group to win an international robotics competition,” SRP states. “Competing against 41 teams from 18 countries, they utilized cutting-edge technology such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and computer numerical control milling machines. This year, Desert WAVE will experiment with new technologies to prepare the robot for the next competition. Desert WAVE is part of the Si Se Puede Foundation, an Arizona-based nonprofit dedicated to providing underserved populations with opportunities to excel in STEM fields.”
