FuturaSun, the Italian solar module producer, has announced major solar offensive with plans to expand its footprint into n-type TOPCon cell manufacturing for a total of 10 GW annual capacity in China's Huai'an in Jiangsu province.
Cells produced here will be absorbed by the company for its Italian and Chinese gigafactories, it said providing even greater quality assurance, enhanced supply autonomy, and increased ability to address future technical and technological advancements.
The move is the 1st for the company's vertical integration in the PV value chain. It plans to realize the state-of-the-art, high efficiency TOPCon solar cell manufacturing project within 3 years for an initial investment of €150 million.
The project will be a 266,000 sq mtr Gigafactory which will be realized in 2 phases under a strategic agreement with the City of Huai'an. Phase I is scheduled to come online in spring 2024.
"This is an extraordinary and unprecedented project in which our Italian Group sets the goal of entering an arena that has so far been dominated by Chinese big players," said FuturaSun CEO and Co-Founder of FuturaSun, Alessandro Barin.
FuturaSun currently operates a 1.2 GW solar module fab in Taizhou, China, and is building another gigafactory with 1 GW capacity in Suzhou province.
In November 2022, it announced plans for a 1 GW module fab in Italy to produce panels with research institute ISC Konstanz' supported interdigitated back contact (IBC) technology, following it up with the launch of a 2 GW fab in Cittadella, Italy in March 2023 for which it did not specify the technology to be used (see Italian Manufacturer Announces 2 GW Module Fab In Italy).
Earlier in April 2023, FuturaSun had unveiled its plans for 10 GW cell and 2 GW module facility in Huai'an through a WeChat communication (see China PV News Snippets).
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