Lithuanian solar module maker SoliTek attributes growing interest in solar PV in Lithuania and all across Europe for its strong sales performance in H1/2022 when its revenues improved by 273% on annual basis.
In Lithuania, high electricity bills are making consumers opt for solar thereby boosting the company's local sales by 55% YoY during the reporting period.
SoliTek's international business also grew significantly with 2.4 times more exports going to Sweden, 5.3 times to Germany, 6 times to Luxembourg and 4 times to the Netherlands. However, the company does not provide any specific shipment numbers or information about its profits in its official statement. In mid-2021, it had a capacity of 180 MW and employed 80 people.
"The demand for our products is growing rapidly, so in order to increase and maximize production volumes, we have switched to a 24/7 operation from 1 August," said SoliTek CEO Julius Sakalauskas. "With our capacity fully sold out by the end of the summer and partly by the end of the year, so the company is investing in further development and automation."
Sakalauskas also added that in H1/2022 it was able to get customers for its innovative solutions too, and especially sees great prospects for the Italian market. The company recently ventured into battery pack systems as an off-grid intelligent energy storage solution. Its focus is on households and infrastructural electricity storage systems. In May, SoliTek presented a battery concept at Intersolar Munich, taking reservations from customers and plans to start deliveries in November 2022.
Part of Lithuanian engineering company BOD Group, SoliTek produces glass-glass solar panels certified as Cradle to Cradle, offering 30-year product warranty. In November 2021, it introduced its M40 solar panel with 235 W output and 12.65% efficiency for integration in greenhouses, targeting the agriculture sector (see New SoliTek Solar Panel For Greenhouses).
Also in 2021, SoliTek signed a JV with Belgium based Avesta Battery & Energy Engineering (ABEE) and IMECAR Elektronik from Turkey for a battery factory in Vilnius, which is expected to be operational in Q1/2023. It will have an initial production capacity of 100 MWh, which could be increased to 1 GWh depending on demand, it said. The company plans to produce battery storage systems for home and commercial applications, and in the future also large-scale systems for grid balancing.
As part of European Union (EU) funded SUPER PV project, SoliTek participated in TaiyangNews' What's Hot in European Solar R&D Conference in June 2021 (see Day 3: TaiyangNews What's Hot In European Solar R&D).