New EU-supported company Holosolis aims to produce ten million photovoltaic modules annually.
The new company Holosolis has announced the construction of Europe’s largest factory for photovoltaic modules (PDF). The location will be Hambach near Sarreguemines in the French department of Moselle. Holosolis was founded by three European players: EIT InnoEnergy, a major investor in cleantech that receives financial support from the EU, as well as French real estate group IDEC and solar energy producer TSE, also based in France.
According to Holosolis, the capacity of the current largest solar factory in Europe is to be surpassed by almost 70 percent. Production is scheduled to start in 2025. By 2027, the manufacturing plant should be fully operational, with an annual production capacity of five gigawatts and ten million photovoltaic modules, equivalent to the energy needs of one million European households.
Holosolis is one of the flagship initiatives being undertaken by the European Solar and Photovoltaics Industrial Alliance (ESIA) to reinvigorate the domestic solar industry (we reported). Currently, according to Windkraft Journal, 80 percent of the world’s installed photovoltaic modules come from China and only three percent from the European Union. Numerous raw materials and preliminary products in the value chain for solar modules also originate from the People’s Republic. ESIA has set a goal of building a European production capacity of 30 gigawatts per year starting in 2025; the planned factory will contribute more than 15 percent of that, said Diego Pavía, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy.
Photo: iStock/WangAnQi
