Hungary: EcoSolifer’s 100 MW HJT cell production line back on track
The vertically integrated Swiss company has announced work on its 100 MWp heterojunction PV cell manufacturing plant in Hungary is back on track, following a successful company restructuring. Originally, it was set to be online in 2016.
The EcoSolifer Group today announced work is back on track at its planned 100 MWp HJT bifacial PV cell production line in Csorna, Hungary, after a two year pause.
“Subsequent to successful restructuring EcoSolifer Group and consequently new arranging its international appearance project of establishment 100MWp HeteroJunction photovoltaic cell manufacturing plant in Csorna (Hungary) can be continued with intensified activities,” it wrote in a statement.
The plant is expected to be commissioned in Q4 2018, while the first cells are set to come off the production line in Q1 or Q2 2019.
EcoSolifer says it will produce 6-inch HJT bifacial cells, with an average front side efficiency of 23,5%. This is expected to be “increased significantly in the near future to 25.5% and at module level over 22% by utilizing, amongst others, the results of the DISC (Double side contact cells with innovative carrier-selective contacts) Research and Innovation Program, Horizon 2020 – EcoSolifer is partnered in – funded by the European Union.”
In August 2015, EcoSolifer signed an around CHF 23 million (approx. US$29.5 million) agreement with Switzerland-based Meyer Burger Technology Ltd for the delivery of the necessary HJT equipment. Delivery was scheduled for late 2015, with EcoSolifer aiming to bring the first cells out in Q1 2016. It added at the time that it was planning to ramp up to 500 MW “in the short term.”
CEO, Ákos Haidegger stated, “the combination of Meyer Burger’s high efficiency bifacial heterojunction cell technology with EcoSolifer’s broad know-how in PV development and industrial scale production capability could trigger an extraordinarily dynamic impulse and influence the entire solar market.”
While production was delayed, Meyer Burger did deliver the equipment. In today’s statement, EcoSolifer says it was temporarily stored near the factory.
Source: renewableenergytimes
