Emmvee Group Finds Solar Manufacturing Technology Partner

• Emmvee has secured the services of Fraunhofer ISE as its solar technology partner
• The German solar research institute will help the company establish a 1.5 GW integrated mono PERC/TOPCon solar cell production facility
• Fraunhofer ISE will conduct technical evaluation of process equipment and consumables and also help with TOPCon upgrade with cell line optimization

As European solar companies wait for policy makers to continue to work out details of solar manufacturing support to local businesses, players in the growing market of India are taking expert European advice on setting up their own GW scale plants. The latest one is Indian module maker Emmvee Group that has secured German solar PV research center Fraunhofer ISE as the solar technology partner to help establish a 1.5 GW integrated mono PERC/TOPCon solar cell production facility in Karnataka.

This collaboration follows one of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) tranche-I winners' Shirdi Sai Electricals Limited (SSEL) joining hands with German engineering and consulting company Viridis.iQ GmbH in 2021 to help establish 4 GW integrated solar PV manufacturing fab in India (see 4 GW Integrated PV Manufacturing For India).

One of the applicants for PLI tranche-I, Emmvee currently operates a 500 MW solar PV module production line in Karnataka's capital Bangalore. According to its production roadmap, the company plans to expand the module manufacturing capacity to 5 GW annually while adding 1.5 GW cell capacity by 2024.

Fraunhofer ISE's role will span technical evaluation of process equipment and consumables, training Emmvee staff in cell production, ramping up and optimizing production lines as well as a TOPCon upgrade with cell line optimization.

Head of Department Production Technologies—Surfaces and Interfaces at Fraunhofer ISE, Dr. Jochen Rentsch shared the project timeline will take more than 36 months to complete.

"Partnering with Fraunhofer ISE will help us to improve our skill, quality and efficiency and allow us to produce high quality cells and modules in the industry. This association will help us to enhance our product portfolio to develop and build new cell configurations and module sizes." said Managing Director, Emmvee, Manjunatha.

In October 2021, Emmvee signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the State Government of Karnataka to build its 2^nd manufacturing plant, expanding its module capacity to 3.5 GW (see 3 GW Solar Cell & Module Production Plans).