Swedish firm Midsummer has appointed founder and former executive vice president Eric Jaremalm to the position of CEO, following the resignation of former CEO Sven Lindström.
Jaremalm and Lindström founded the company in 2004, which has sought to establish itself as a manufacturer of solar cells in Europe, amid growing concerns over the future of European solar manufacturing, with equipment notably cheaper to produce in both the US and China. The company is building two cell manufacturing facilities in Europe – a 50MW factory in Italy and a 200MW factory in Sweden – and the board of directors is optimistic that the elevation of Jaremalm to the head of the company will continue this momentum.
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“The board believes that Jaremalm contributes with great experience from the company, technical know-how and international sales work,” said Robert Sjöström, chairman of the board. “In his various roles in the company, he has shown the ability to focus, prioritise and deliver, which is and will be of great importance for the work going forward.”
However, the company’s manufacturing projects have been beset by delays, with Midsummer announcing the Italian factory in November 2021, and initially expecting to begin commercial production within a year. The company has since pushed back its proposed start date of automated production to the first quarter of this year, and bringing the facility online will be a priority for the company, as it has already signed an agreement with “one of Europe’s leading producers and suppliers of waterproofing products and services” to deliver 303MW of panels between 2023 and 2027.
The company’s other factory, to be built in Sweden, will build copper indium gallium selenide solar cells. Midsummer received a grant of over €32 million from the European Commission to build the facility last year, and expects to begin commercial production in the first quarter of 2026, ahead of scaling up production at this facility to over 1GW by the end of the decade.