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T1 Energy secures data center rezoning approval for Giga Arctic facility in Norway
The former battery maker will convert part of its 926,000-square-foot Norwegian facility into a 50 MW data center, with eyes on expanding to nearly 400 MW.
T1 Energy, the company formerly known as Freyr Battery, just got the green light from Norwegian municipal officials to turn a chunk of its Arctic battery factory into a data center.
Mo i Rana’s municipal government approved the rezoning of 161,000 square feet of the Giga Arctic facility on August 27, allowing T1 Energy to repurpose part of the massive site for data center operations. The company expects the facility to be operational with 50 MW of capacity by 2027.
From batteries to bytes
The Giga Arctic facility spans a total of 926,000 square feet. It was originally built with lithium-ion battery production in mind, back when Freyr Battery was riding the European gigafactory wave.
T1 Energy, which trades on the NYSE under the ticker TE, has already secured a 50 MW grid allocation from Statnett, Norway’s transmission system operator. That allocation runs through 2033.
T1 Energy sits in the grid queue for an additional 396 MW, which would bring total potential capacity to nearly 450 MW.
Norway runs almost entirely on hydropower, energy prices are among the lowest in Europe, and the cold Arctic climate provides natural cooling. Cooling accounts for roughly 40% of a typical data center’s energy consumption.
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The strategic pivot
T1 Energy’s broader corporate strategy now centers on US solar manufacturing, leaving its Nordic assets somewhat underutilized. Rather than let a nearly million-square-foot facility sit idle in northern Norway, management decided to pursue AI compute infrastructure.
Chairman and CEO Dan Barcelo framed the rezoning approval as a step toward AI and technology growth. He also pointed to ongoing discussions with multiple counterparties aimed at maximizing the value of the company’s Nordic holdings.
Why Norway, why now
Norway’s grid is over 90% hydroelectric. Unlike some European markets, Norway hasn’t imposed moratoriums on new data center construction, a growing trend in places like the Netherlands and Ireland where grid constraints have forced regulators to pump the brakes.
T1 Energy’s advantage is that it already has the physical structure and the grid allocation from Statnett through 2033, removing the biggest bottleneck for new entrants.
Converting a battery facility into data center space requires significant capital expenditure for power distribution, redundancy systems, fiber connectivity, and security infrastructure. T1 Energy hasn’t disclosed the full cost of the conversion or how it plans to finance the buildout beyond current cash reserves.
The 396 MW expansion option matters significantly: hyperscalers increasingly want campuses that can scale to hundreds of megawatts, making a credible path to that full capacity essential for attracting major anchor tenants.