Meyer Burger
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Meyer Burger secures €200 million from EU Innovation Fund among others
The European Commission (EC) has granted €3.6 billion (US$4.04 billion) to 41 large-scale clean tech projects via the EU Innovation Fund, including three PV modules projects under the clean tech manufacturing category.
PV module manufacturer Meyer Burger’s project HOPE (High-efficiency Onshore PV module production in Europe) obtained €200 million from the fund. The project will involve constructing an additional 3.5GW of production capacity for solar cells and solar modules by Meyer Burger in Germany and probably in Spain. According to the EC, this project will introduce new innovative heterojunction (HJT) technology, producing PV modules that can last longer with higher efficiency.
Norwegian solar company NorSun also secured €54 million for a 3GW expansion of current ingot and wafer capacity in Årdal, Vestland. This would quadruple the company’s current capacity, while the EC said the wafers produced by NorSun have much lower environmental impact and resource consumption.
Swedish solar company Midsummer received a grant of over €32 million for a new 200MW plant to produce CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) thin film solar cells. Its scalability and the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were crucial to obtaining the fund, while the lightweight CIGS thin-film solar panels can be installed on low-bearing rooftops.