A big news for European solar manufacturing: a consortium made up of energy investor EIT InnoEnergy, French real estate player IDEC Group and solar energy local producer TSE have announced plans to launch a 5 GW solar module fab in France's Moselle region to produce 10 million TOPCon panels annually starting from 2025 through Holosolis consortium.
Proposed to be located in Sarreguemines, the new fab will enter production in 2025 and ramp up to full capacity from 2027 on an area spanning 50 hectares providing it enough space to expand in the future to incorporate new technologies. It will generate employment for nearly 1,700 people.
The gigafactory will be headed by Jan Jacob Boom-Wichers as the CEO from the EIT InnoEnergy who previously worked with Trina Solar as the head of sales for Europe.
Wichers said, "We will start production using TOPCon technology, one of the most advanced and efficient today. At the same time, we are looking closely at a very promising solution, called tandem, which couples silicon and perovskite within a solar cell, with the effect of a spectacular improvement in energy efficiency. When this innovation matures, we will need to modify and extend our production lines."
Location of the fab was fixed after Holosolis studied proposals for 40 sites in 6 countries. Among other factors that helped zero it down to France was 'low-carbon nature of energy made in France' that's predominantly nuclear and hydraulic. Also TSE aims to develop 10 GW of solar projects over the next 10 years.
Modules produced will have the 'lowest carbon footprint and highest social standards'. These will cater to residential rooftops, industrial and commercial rooftops and agrivoltaic projects.
Calling it the largest European PV panel factory, the consortium says this 5 GW fab will accelerate energy transition and bring down the continent's dependence on Chinese modules that currently covers over 90% of the modules installed in the European Union (EU).
"With its 5 GW of production, Holosolis will contribute to more than 15% of the ESIA's objective: annual capacity of 30 GW by 2025, corresponding to €60 billion of new annual GDP in Europe and the creation of more than 400,000 new jobs (direct and indirect)," said EIT InnoEnergy France's CEO Karine Vernier.
Through the European Solar PV Industry Alliance (ESIA), European Union aims to for the EU to establish 30 GW annual vertically integrated solar PV manufacturing by 2025 (see European Solar PV Industry Alliance Formally Established).
Holosolis' 5 GW ambition follows French solar start-up Carbon sharing plans to develop 5 GW cells and 3.5 GW modules annually, based on n-type technology in France's Fos-Sur-Mer, calling it its 1st gigafactory (see France To Host Integrated Solar Gigafactory).
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