FREYR Battery has entered into an agreement to acquire the U.S. solar manufacturing assets of Trina Solar.
The transaction is subject to certain customary conditions precedent, including receipt of certain third-party consents, completion of the preferred stock issuance to Encompass Capital Advisors and internal reorganization to be completed by Trina Solar. It is expected to close by year’s end.
Under the terms of the agreement, FREYR will acquire Trina Solar’s 5 GW solar module manufacturing facility in Wilmer, Texas, which started production earlier this month. The facility is expected to ramp up to full production next year with 30% of estimated production volumes backed by firm offtake contracts with U.S. customers.
Upon closing of the transaction, FREYR plans to execute a multi-phase strategy to establish a vertically integrated U.S. solar manufacturing footprint. The next phase of the plan will be to construct a 5 GW solar cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. Site selection is underway.
Under the terms of the transaction agreement at closing, the total consideration to Trina Solar will consist of $100 million of cash, $50 million repayment of an intercompany loan, $150 million loan note, 9.9% of FREYR outstanding common stock and an $80 million convertible loan note that would convert into an additional 11.5% of FREYR outstanding common stock after certain conditions are satisfied.
FREYR has secured a $100 million commitment for the issuance of preferred stock to Encompass Capital Advisors and $14.8 million for a private placement of 7% of FREYR outstanding common stock to Chunyan Wu, a co-founder and shareholder of Trina Solar.
Daniel Barcelo, FREYR’s current chairman of the board, has been appointed CEO. Tom Einar Jensen, FREYR’s co-founder, will assume the role of CEO of FREYR Europe and will oversee the optimization and monetization of FREYR’s European portfolio. Jensen is stepping down from FREYR’s board of directors to focus on FREYR’s European portfolio. All these changes are effective immediately.
Joining FREYR upon closing will be Mingxing Lin, who has been appointed the company’s chief strategy officer, and Dave Gustafson, who has been appointed COO. Lin has been appointed a nominee to FREYR’s board of directors subject to closing of the transaction.
W. Richard Anderson, currently the CEO of Coastline Exploration, has been appointed to FREYR’s board, effective immediately.
The company has terminated its SemiSold technology license with 24M Technologies. Pursuant to the termination of the license agreement, FREYR has no remaining financial obligations to 24M and no longer holds any equity ownership interest in 24M.
“We are pleased to announce this transformative transaction, which will immediately position the Company as one of the leading solar manufacturing companies in the U.S.,” says Barcelo.
“We are proud to be partnered with Trina Solar, a global manufacturing and solar technology leader. Domestic manufacturing capacity for solar and batteries is essential for energy transition and job creation. The U.S. was once the global leader in solar, and it can be again.”
Santander served as financial advisor. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom served as U.K. legal advisor. Arnold & Porter, Ernst & Young, Clean Energy Associates and Rystad Energy served as advisors to FREYR in support of the transaction. Dorsey & Whitney served as U.S. legal advisor, CICC served as financial advisor and Deloitte served as tax advisor to Trina Solar.
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FREYR Battery Acquires Trina Solar’s U.S. Manufacturing Assets
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CIP Buys Ørsted EU Onshore Wind
Allen covers CIP’s €1.44 billion buyout of Ørsted’s European onshore wind, the new Perigus Energy name, and Vestas paying €506 million for its stake in the firm.
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In Denmark, there is an old expression. “What goes around comes around.” The founders of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners — known in the industry simply as CIP — know exactly what that means.
Back in 2012, four executives were fired from DONG Energy, the Danish energy giant that would later rebrand itself as Ørsted. Their offense? Their paychecks were considered too large. So large that DONG Energy’s own CEO was forced out as well. Four men shown the door were. A year later, a woman joined them from that same company. The Danish press had a name for these five. They called them “the golden birds.”
With six billion Danish krone from the pension fund PensionDanmark, they launched what is now one of the world’s largest clean energy fund managers.
In 2020, turbine maker Vestas purchased a 25 percent stake in CIP. The deal included a performance-based earn-out arrangement. This week, the books revealed the size of that windfall.
The five partners have now collected a combined 1.8 billion Danish krone — roughly 240 million euros. Vestas expects to make one final payment of 71 million euros this year. Including interest, Vestas will have paid 506 million euros for its stake in CIP. Not a bad return for a group of people who were shown the door.
And. This week, CIP completed its acquisition of Ørsted’s European onshore wind business for 1.44 billion euros. They renamed it Perigus Energy. The new company holds 826 megawatts of wind and solar capacity, operating in Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Spain.
Let that circle close. The executives fired from DONG Energy — the company that became Ørsted — just bought Ørsted’s business.
Meanwhile, CIP’s annual report for 2025 tells the story of a company in transition. Profit for the year came in at 561 million Danish krone, down from 683 million the year before. The employee count fell by nearly a fifth, to 441 people. And yet, their CI Five fund closed this year at 12.3 billion euros — the largest greenfield renewable infrastructure fund ever raised. Looking ahead, CIP expects profit of 600 to 800 million Danish krone in 2026 as new fund closings take shape.
So the picture this week is this. The men and women once considered overpaid, at a company that no longer carries the same name, have built the world’s largest greenfield renewable energy fund. And they now own a piece of the legacy that fired them.
The golden birds are still flying.
And that is the wind energy news for the fourth of May, 2026. Join us for more on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.
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They call this woman an “influencer.” What type of idiot does she influence?
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