Chinese Company Announces Solar Module Fab In Europe

Chinese solar PV manufacturer Dahai Solar has unveiled plans for a solar PV module manufacturing facility in Romania with an annual installed capacity of 2 GW. The company announced the fab at the recent Solar Energy Summit in Bucharest. 

Dahai Solar has picked Calarasi county in Romania to establish what it says will be a state-of-the-art module fab. According to its website, Dahai has a 5 GW high efficiency solar module production capacity with 4 factories, along with 10 GW silicon production capacity. 

According to the local Romanian news portal Economica, Dahai has already started construction on site as it targets to bring the project online in the fall this year, by August or September. The report says it will become the ‘only such unit in Romania with a significant capacity’ after Altius Fotovoltaic is expected to have shuttered its 1.5 GW fab in the country following intense competition from Chinese panels. 

Expected to cost an investment of €10 million ($10.66 million), the Dahai factory in Romania will roll out monofacial and bifacial solar panels based on TOPCon cell technology, with an output of up to 690W, the report added. Dahai added that it aims to use Romania as its center for production and sales in Eastern Europe. 

Romania is reportedly targeting over 8 GW of solar PV installed capacity by 2030. To support this target, it aims to launch GW-scale renewable energy auctions. The country also has approval from the European Commission to invest €259 million in state aid to produce solar cells, panels and batteries locally (see Solar PV Manufacturing Slated To Come To Romania). 

Over a year ago, Germany’s AE Solar announced plans to launch a solar module production fab in Romania with 2 GW annual capacity initially. It will be scaled up to 10 GW annually (see 10 GW Solar Panel Manufacturing Facility In Romania).