Kalyon Güneş Teknolojileri Üretim A.Ş. (or Kalyon Solar Technologies Production Inc) from Turkey will invest a minimum of $9 million over next 3 years into conducting joint research into agrivoltaics and other integrated PV and solar storage technologies, with Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE).
Signed at the 4th Turkish-German Energy Forum, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) will see the duo collaborating on coupling PV with battery storage systems used for plug-and play applications, off-grid systems and to increase the share of solar self-sufficiency in PV systems, among other avenues.
The focus will primarily be on agrivoltaics, even as the partners see significant potential in other applications of PV as building integrated PV (BIPV), road canopies, noise barriers, parking lots, electric charging stations and on vehicle bodies. "Here integrated photovoltaics can unleash considerable synergy potential that goes beyond the mere production of electricity," stated the two partners.
"The solar industry and particularly photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturing are already well established in Turkey, and we are looking forward to being able to advance innovative PV technologies with Kalyon," said Fraunhofer ISE Co-Director Prof Dr Hans-Martin Henning. "Both the integration of photovoltaics into areas already being used for other purposes, along with an improved linkage between electricity storage and solar power generation, are becoming increasingly important as PV expansion progresses."
Kalyon Solar started with a 500 MW vertically integrated solar PV manufacturing facility in Turkey that now provides continuous production in shifts with a capacity of 1.2 GW in ingot, wafer, cell and module fabs. It is part of diversified business conglomerate Kalyon Holding whose Kalyon Enerji recently received an investment worth AED 1.8 billion from Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company (IHC) in lieu of 50% stake in the company (see Abu Dhabi's IHC Invests In Turkey's Kalyon Enerji).