Swedish thin-film solar technology company Midsummer has received a grant of around US$36 million (€32 million) from the EU Innovation Fund to build a new 200MW CIGS thin-film solar cell megafactory in Sweden.
As one of the world’s largest funding programs for innovative technologies, the EU Innovation Fund is helping to boost the development of low-carbon technologies and accelerate the decarbonisation process in the EU.
CIGS thin film solar cells are a highly efficient thin film technology and have brought to market a number of proven advantages such as: B. Flexibility, light weight, improved aesthetics (an ideal solution for BIPV applications) and excellent performance with lower light incidence and extremely low carbon footprint in production.
Midsummer has been dedicated to the research and development of CIGS thin film technology since its establishment. It Partner of roofing companies to sell its thin-film solar solutions in EU countries. Midsummer has secured thin film contracts effective immediately a total of almost 200 MW. The company also drives innovation by combining its CIGS solutions with other solar cell technologies to achieve higher efficiency results. By harnessing the power of the company’s flagship research and development machines, the DUO and UNO, Midsummer has made significant advances Silicon CIGS and development of perovskite CIGS tandem cells.
In evaluating Midsummer’s grant application, the committee gave the project top marks, particularly for scalability and potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “The proposal offers good potential to create new value chains in Europe in the thin-film PV manufacturing industry, which will have a positive impact on European competitiveness,” said a representative of the Audit Committee.
Meanwhile, Midsummer is building a mega factory with an annual capacity of 50 MW in Italywhose mass production is expected to start at the end of this year.
“Our goal is to become Europe’s largest thin film solar cell manufacturer with multiple factories across Europe and this support will of course facilitate the establishment of our second European mega factory,” said Sven Lindstrom, CEO of Midsummer.
In addition to the Fund, a number of significant clean technology development programs have been introduced in the EU in recent years. Earlier this month, the European Investment Bank decided to do so Increase the package size for REPowerEU to $50 billion, which means increased support to increase domestic manufacturing capacity for strategic net-zero technologies and products in the EU.