The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) will build a pilot solar cell line in Germany to support US manufacturer Talon PV’s efforts to establish solar cell capacity in the US.
Talon PV is currently building a tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cell production facility in the US, which it says will have 4GW of nameplate capacity once fully operational.
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Frauhofer ISE said it will support Talon’s efforts by building a pilot line at its Photovoltaic Technology Evaluation Centre (PV-TEC) in Freiburg, Germany. It said the pilot line would enable Talon to “refine both its product design and manufacturing processes.”
Talon will add its specific machinery to the equipment already in place at the Fraunhofer PV-TEC to mirror the production lines that will be in place at its 4GW US plant.
“The copy of the manufacturing line from Talon PV allows us to optimise both the product and the process of the new factory even before production begins,” said Dr. Jochen Rentsch, head of PV technology transfer at Fraunhofer ISE. “This saves time and money.”
Moreover, Fraunhofer said that it would continue to work on TOPCon cell development at the Freiburg line after Talon PV’s 4GW facility has ramped up to full capacity.
“With TOPCon solar cells in the G12 format, we are bringing the most advanced cell technology to market,” said Adam Tesanovich, co-founder and CEO of TALON PV. “At the same time, we are already preparing for the next generation of solar technologies, particularly perovskite-silicon tandem cells.”
Talon PV has a supply agreement in place with US-based solar module manufacturer SEG Solar. Earlier this year, SEG shipped its first utility-scale modules from its Texas manufacturing facility; it is also developing a vertically integrated manufacturing base in Indonesia.
TOPCon technology has been the subject of several patent disputes in the US, as it has gained mainstream dominance in the global solar supply chain. To avoid the range of TOPCon litigation in the US, some solar manufacturers – notably ES Foundry and Suniva – have opted to produce older passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) technology, which is less legally contentious even if much of the international industry has moved on to other technologies.
