Giga Arctic Could Reduce CO2 by More Than Norway's Total Emissions

The envisioned annual production at Giga Arctic, FREYR Battery’s planned facility in Norway, could enable our customers of those batteries to reduce 801 million tons of CO2 emissions over the lifetime of the batteries, according to a report released by Minviro an environmental impact company, commissioned by us.  The full report on their web pages here.  This is almost twice the total amount emitted in Norway annually2.

The primary objective of the study has been to provide FREYR with a calculation of LFP battery cells’ use-phase global warming potential impacts, and the theoretical potential carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions abatement results in each market segment and geography. The market segments investigated were passenger electric vehicles (EV), electric trucks (e-trucks) and energy storage systems for grid-scale stationary applications (ESS). The geographies evaluated were Europe and the United States. The study follows a gate-to-gate approach and was conducted according to the requirements of ISO 14067:2018 and ISO-14040/44:2006 standards.

The methodology for the abatement considers that the emissions from the electricity used to charge batteries in ESS will replace the emissions produced by the marginal electricity of the grid mix, assumed to be natural gas. Likewise, the emissions from the electricity grid mix used to charge the batteries in EVs and e-trucks will replace the emissions produced by petrol fuel in internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and diesel in ICE trucks. The emissions abated consider the lifetime of every battery application in the use phase.

The theoretical abatement potential achieved per market segment and geography is presented in Table 3. Results are given as an average on a GWh-basis so that comparisons between segments and geographies can be done.

1 x Abatement table
Table 3. Results Summary of Life Cycle Assessment Study.
The results show that the abatement potential in the use phase of batteries in ESS is the same for the United States and Europe, with an average abatement of 3.2 Mt CO2/GWh. This is because the same marginal emissions are being displaced, those of natural gas. The second application with highest abatement potential is found in the use phase of batteries in e-trucks in the United States with an average abatement of 2.2 Mt CO2/GWh, followed by the same application in Europe, with an average abatement of 1.9 Mt CO2/GWh. The abatement is driven by fuel economy decisions made for ICE trucks, which are higher for the United States, over the difference in geographical grid mixes’ emissions. Finally, the battery application with lowest decarbonization potential is the use of batteries in EVs. In the United States, the average abatement potential has resulted in 0.9 Mt CO2/GWh, while in Europe, 0.6 Mt CO2/GWh is achieved. This is again due to fuel economy assumptions made for ICE cars in those two economies.

For our ambition in the year 2030 of 345 million tons CO2 abated, we have calculated based on a volume of batteries produce and sold equal 150 GWh, split into the three segments mentioned above according to our sales plans (confidential) and multiplied with their lifetime abatement potential. Comparing the 345 million tons CO2 to the annual emissions of cars, we have used the emission number for cars from the Minviro report.

1Assuming 25GWh annual production and sales from Giga Arctic. 25 GWh annual battery production multiplied with 3.2 Mt of CO2 per GWh in use in the ESS sector (as per the Minviro report)

2Source: https://countryeconomy.com/energy-and-environment/co2-emissions