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
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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.
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