Chinese solar manufacturer DAS Solar plans to build a 3GW module assembly plant in France.
Located in the eastern region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, the project is expected to start module assembly production by 2025.
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The company will build three, 1GW nameplate capacity production lines in a former 10-hectare automotive plant. The investment in the module assembly plant is expected to be around €109 million (US$115 million).
According to several French news outlets, the company aims to expand in the full supply chain with solar cell manufacturing and subcontract further upstream products with either local or Chinese partners, including solar wafers. These projects could create up to 2,500 jobs, according to French news agency AFP.
France solar manufacturing
In the past few years France has seen its solar manufacturing activity increase. Two French startups ,Carbon and Holosolis., have both announced plans for capacity additions.
Carbon recently reached a draft agreement to acquire fellow French manufacturer Photowatt to integrate into its planned solar cell plant and module assembly plant in the south of France, with 5GW and 3.5GW of annual nameplate capacity, respectively. The project aims to produce n-type technology solar cells, including tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cells and interdigitated back contact (IBC) cells.
Holosolis – which was founded by innovation group EIT InnoEnergy – on the other hand, aims to build a 5GW annual nameplate capacity module assembly plant in northern France. Production is expected to start at the end of 2026.
DAS Solar’s decision to build a manufacturing plant in Europe is the latest one from a Chinese solar manufacturer in less than a month; Trina Solar was awarded funding from the European Commission’s (EC) Innovation Fund in October. Trina was among two solar manufacturers awarded funding, which will be for a heterojunction module assembly plant in Spain with an annual nameplate capacity of 1.5GW. The other company awarded funds from the EC was Italian solar manufacturer FuturaSun, for the FENICE project (FuturaSun advancEd italiaN manufacturIng Centre). The Italian manufacturer aims to build a Back Contact (xBC) and n-type module assembly plant with 1.4GW of annual nameplate capacity.
