Germany's International Solar Energy Research Center (ISC) Konstanz and French solar technology startup Carbon, with 5 GW production plans, have formalized their planned collaboration with the signing of a technology agreement for TOPCon solar technology.
With this agreement, ISC will help Carbon develop TOPCon technology and design the 1st steps of the manufacturing processes. Carbon said it plans to operationalize 5 GW of solar module production capacity by 2025, and rapidly ramp it up to 20 GW from 2030, which is an update from 15 GW reported earlier.
The French gigafab plans were first revealed in March 2022 when Carbon had been targeting 5 GW factory in France to produce TOPCon and IBC solar modules with help from ISC Konstanz and Becquerel Institute (see 5 GW Solar Module Fab Plans For France).
Carbon expects these plans to be realized for billions of Euros while creating 2,000 direct and 4,000 indirect jobs.
Calling the technological expertise of ISC as essential for the design of its manufacturing process, Carbon's President and Co-founder Pascal Richard said, "With ISC Konstanz at its side, Carbon can rely on the know-how of a European level institute to develop and produce the PV cells and modules of the future."
ISC Konstanz says it investigates state-of-the-art module manufacturing processes for its customers with a focus on 'simple and cost-effective production and the longest possible product lifetimes in order to achieve the lowest possible levelized cost of electricity (LCOE)'.
"The need for a dynamic and competitive solar industry in Europe has never been more important than now," explained Co-founder and Director of ISC Konstanz, Radovan Kopecek. "We believe that TOPCon Technology is the first step towards European industry renaissance, and we work hard already on the next evolutions."
This announcement follows a partnership of the company with France's industrial subcontractor ACI Groupe that's also a founding shareholder in Carbon. It will act as an industrial facilitator. Back then Carbon had said that it plans to produce competitive, high performance reliable low-carbon cells and modules for which it will have to build a silicon ingot fab, facilities for cutting silicon wafers, clean rooms for cell manufacturing, module assembly workshops, and logistics warehouses on some 100 hectares of industrial facilities.
TaiyangNews explored the growing interest in PERC's natural successor in our December 2021 report TOPCon Solar Technology 2021 Edition which can be downloaded here for free.
We followed up with a Special Focus Webinar on TOPCon Solar Modules in January 2022 to discuss why this technology is the natural successor to incumbent PERC (see TaiyangNews Special Focus Webinar On TOPCon).
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