One of the solar star markets of Europe, Spain may get 5 GW worth of vertically integrated solar PV manufacturing capacity located in Seville, Andalucia over the next 2 years, revealed German research and development institute Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE).
The institute said it is working as an advisor for a newly founded company called Greenland Gigafactory, advising it on planning of the planned fab and providing technical support to the joint development of advanced cell technologies, while Bosch Rexroth is offering its expertise in factory planning and design.
Greenland Gigafactory will use state-of-the-art highly automated technology based on Industry 4.0 to produce monocrystalline silicon wafers in the M10 format for Passivated Emitter and Rear (PERC) solar cells, which will then be built into half or triple cell modules, each with a minimum power output of 540W, interconnected in a multibus-compatible manner.
Plans of the 5 GW production capacity follow a 2019 study carried out by Fraunhofer ISE, on behalf of VDMA, that concluded that having a local or regional production facility of scale within Europe can help achieve low production costs. "Another significant result of the study is the fact that, given today's production costs of less than €0.20 per W, the share of transport costs for modules, as well as for subcomponents, is increasing and is now almost 10%," according to the Fraunhofer ISE study that also believes locally produced modules will also have a lower carbon footprint than one that travels from far (see Experts Discuss Possibility Of European PV Production).
This and more such European production plans for solar are important for Europe to bring back 'industrial sovereignty' in the field of solar energy, according to Fraunhofer ISE Institute Director Prof. Andreas Bett.