Italy To Add GW Plus HJT Manufacturing With Chinese Specialist Huasun

Italy, one of the few European countries with a long history of solar manufacturing, is set to add a further GW plus of manufacturing for Wafers, cells and modules, using HJT (Heterojunction) Technology. The deal was signed between local player BEE Solar and Chinese HJT specialist, Huasun Energy. HJT, widely perceived as the more expensive manufacturing option vis a vis TOPCon or BiFacial modules, has made a strong impact in the past couple of years, led by Reliance Industries own multi GW solar manufacturing around the same technology, besides multiple other vendors in China and other regions. Global HJT manufacturing capacity is set to increase by over 30 GW between 2023 and 2025 accordingly, with Huasun itself accounting or 20 GW of existing production.

On the plus side, HJT is seen as the only technology that comes close to matching a single junction silicon solar cell in efficiency ( at around 29% theoretically), while also involving fewer processes during its manufacturing.

For BEE Solar, which specialises in establishing industrial plants in the PV space, the deal with Huasun opens up possibilities for sales  in the local Italian, European and US PV markets .

The partners stress that the fully automated and advanced manufacturing facilities will be the most cost-competitive in Europe.

For Huasun, the Italian venture seems part of its efforts to scale up capacity to 40 GW, while shifting a significant part outside China to get closer to markets as well as avoid the increasing risk of tariff or non-tariff barriers to Chinese imports.

Earlier, energy major Enel Group’s Enel Green Power (EGP), which operates a 200 MW fab in the Catania region is also on course to expand capacity to 3 GW, a size that it claims will make it the biggest solar manufacturing facility in Europe, where multiple manufacturers remain at sub GW levels.