Swedish solar PV manufacturing startup Nordcell Group says it will build the world's greenest solar panel factory in Sweden calling it GIGA ONE. With an annual installed capacity of 1.2 GW, it says this will boost European solar panel production capacity by over 50%.
The 1.2 GW fab will have a capacity to roll out more than 2.5 million solar panels/year. It claims these panels, once installed, will produce about 1.5 TWh clean energy equivalent to roughly 1% of Sweden's total energy needs.
It will be powered by 100% fossil-free green energy, says Nordcell, unlike China where a majority solar panels rely on coal-based energy.
The management says its green-energy powered solar panels at its artificial intelligence (AI)- driven automation and state-of-the-art fab will be of high quality and competitively priced. The location of the plant is not yet final. The company is exploring different sites in the north. Production is scheduled to start in H1/2025.
To deliver this, Nordcell cites its 'solid plan' prepared over the last year when it was formed by a group of serial entrepreneurs from the European Union (EU). It has collaborated with German solar energy research institute Fraunhofer ISE for the project.
Head of Technology Transfer Division Photovoltaics, Fraunhofer ISE, Dr. Jochen Rentsch says, "We've partnered with Nordcell from the start, initiating an early Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to analyse the environmental impact of production. It became evident that Sweden holds significant advantages globally in reducing the carbon footprint in PV production."
Nordcell says it aims to reduce its carbon footprint by 90% by 2030. Committing itself to circular production, Nordcell targets to become the greenest PV producer in the world.
"With access to cheap fossil-free energy in Sweden, it's our responsibility to leverage it for energy-intensive industries, particularly into products driving the clean energy transition," says Nordcell Co-Founder Felix Olofsson.
GIGA ONE is the 1st factory for Nordcell that aims to build a vertically integrated production covering all 4 primary stages of solar panel production, namely silicon, ingot and wafer, cells and panels.
Nordcell is banking on the EU target to achieve a minimum 40% of all net-zero technologies, including solar panels, to be manufacturing locally by 2030 under the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) (see EU Council & Parliament Agree Over Net-Zero Industry Act).
With clean energy sources such as hydropower and biomass forming the majority of its renewable energy mix, Sweden is a good option for the energy-intensive solar PV manufacturing industry. In November 2023, Epishine launched a new organic solar cell fab, touting a low carbon footprint of 0.86 g CO2 eq/cm2 for its patented production process (see Epishine Opens New OPV Solar Cell Factory).
Another Swedish thin-film solar cell manufacturer, Midsummer, is also setting up its mega-factory in Sweden with 200 MW capacity, with funding from the EU's Innovation Fund round 3 (see New Thin Film Module Factory Planned In Europe).