Meyer Burger Receives 22.5M Euros to Build Green Solar Cells Production Facility

Meyer Burger Technology Ltd has received two positive grant notifications at the end of 2020. Meyer Burger’s heterojunction technology (HJT) for solar cell production has significant environmental advantages compared to conventional manufacturing processes hence, received two grants, as the company announced yesterday. 

The approval of the environmental protection aid was specifically based on the drafted expert’s opinion from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. The two positive grant notifications are;

• The state of Saxony-Anhalt and the Federal Republic of Germany is pledging up to 15 million euros in environmental protection aid for the establishment of HJT solar cell production in Thalheim (city of Bitterfeld-Wolfen).
• Besides, an investment grant of 7.5 million euros has been awarded within the framework of public financial assistance for the improvement of the regional economic structure (GRW) for the assembling of the production facility in Thalheim (city of Bitterfeld-Wolfen).

CEO Gunter Erfurt said, “We are pleased to receive this significant environmental aid. It proves that heterojunction technology is not only more efficient but also more eco-friendly than conventional solar cell technologies.”

Meyer Burger’s investments are recognized as particularly innovative and eco-friendly, acknowledging the award of the highest grant volume of 15M euros. While on the other hand, the company has been awarded a public investment grant (GRW) of 7.5M euros for the construction of a new production facility in Bitterfeld-Wolfen maybe by end of 2023.

The total amount of 22.5M euros from the two grants may still be reduced according to the state aid law of the European Union if further public financing support should be claimed. Grants of this scale were expected by Meyer Burger and are included in the existing business plan.

At present, Meyer Burger is installing tools for an initial production volume of 400MW of HJ capacity in 2021. The company confirmed that it expected to start production in the second quarter of 2021.

Consequently, the payment of the grants is a confirmation of financing for the planned investments at the production site, allowing for an annual capacity of 1.4 GW. And the company is confident to meet this requirement. 

However, the production will start in the second quarter of 2021 with annually 0.4 GW of solar cells and 0.4 GW of solar modules. While the establishment of the HJT production lines and the sales organization are meanwhile progressing according to plan.  

The further processing of the solar cells into solar modules takes place in Freiberg (Saxony). The production capacity of solar cells is to be expanded to 1.4 GW in the next step and as quickly as possible, subject to successful debt financing, according to Meyer Burger. 

Earlier in July last year, Merger Burger made its reputation as a quality supplier of production equipment till recently, had declared its plans to move with forwarding integration sometime back. It has zeroed in on Germany for its first owned production line. The new line is expected to be on stream by 2021, for 400 MW of heterojunction cell technology-based cells and modules.