FREYR adds VP of Operations and product engineer to advance Norway’s first LiB battery production facility

FREYR has appointed Kenneth Yan as VP of Operations and Eirik Børsheim as Product Manager to advance Norway’s first LiB battery production facility. Both will join the company later this year to accelerate FREYRs development of the fast-track and giga-scale facilities in Mo i Rana, Norway.

“Our business model and strategy combined with our expanding team of industry professionals and the comparative benefits of Norway, attract some of the best talents in the battery industry”, says CEO Tom Einar Jensen

The new VP of Operations, Kenneth Yan, has for the past two years been CEO of Cham Battery in China with two battery cell facilities and one battery-pack plant employing more than 800 people. Prior to this Mr Yan has over 20 years of international experience from Inventus Power, TWS Technology America inc, Shanghai Champion & Science Co, A123 Systems, GKN Group, Delphi Corp and more.

Product Manager Eirik Børsheim was previously principal engineer for the eMarine segment of Leclanche SA and has held various positions related to energy storage at Siemens, connected to lithium ion Batteries and energy storage products such as BlueValt ES and marine and offshore solutions.

“We are very pleased to have two more industry professionals joining the FREYR team. Kenneth will be a core member of the continuously growing FREYR family leading operations of our facilities in Mo i Rana, and Eirik adds competence and capacity when establishing customer relationships with special focus on energy storage and marine segments, said Tom Einar Jensen.

In July this year, FREYR successfully raised NOK 130 million of pre-construction equity financing for the first lithium-ion battery cell (LIB) facility in Norway with strong local and regional support.

FREYR will build a combined 2 + 32 GWh battery cell capacity, including a so-called ‘giga-factory’, in Mo i Rana. This combined undertaking be one of the largest in Europe and will produce lithium-ion battery cells (LIBs), through a partnership-based approach based on best technology available at any given point in time. FREYR is continuing to expand its value chain and establishing formal relationships related to technology, raw-material supply, equipment and machinery, production systems and customers. FREYR is also deeply committed to supporting the development of an ecosystem of scientific, commercial and financial stakeholders to develop new markets and to meet the growing global demand for battery cells - produced in Norway and the Nordic region - in a profitable, responsible and sustainable way.

Tom Einar Jensen, Chief Executive Officer, tom.jensen@FREYRbattery.com

Hilde Rønningsen, Director of Communications, hilde.ronningsen@FREYRbattery.com

FREYR is a Norwegian company in the process of developing, financing, constructing and operating 2+32 GWh annual capacity worth of lithium-ion based battery cell facilities and a 600 MW wind park in the municipalities of Rana and Nesna in Nordland, Norway. The company will supply sustainably produced, cost competitive battery cells to the rapidly growing market for electric vehicles and energy storage in Europe and globally, as well as develop other markets within the segments of marine transportation, aviation and offshore oil through cluster-based R&D initiatives with leading Norwegian and European institutions and companies. For more information, see the home page at: freyrbattery.com