Swedish thin-film solar manufacturer Midsummer has inked a partnership with defence and security company Saab to deliver a 200MW turnkey solar cell factory in Thailand.
Formalised via the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU), the partnership will seek to establish a long-term, comprehensive framework to explore and identify potential activities for industrial cooperation in the Kingdom of Thailand and other undisclosed export markets.
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As confirmed in a media statement released today (4 November), Midsummer and the defence and security company, also based in Sweden, will look to deliver a 200MW factory dedicated to producing thin-film solar cells.
The companies confirmed that Midsummer would be responsible for designing the factory, selling all production equipment to the factory and owning a small part of the Thai production company.
Eric Jaremalm, CEO of Midsummer, hinted that similar projects could be extended beyond Thailand’s borders into other markets.
“This type of project is a testament to our much sought-after green technology and production processes on a global scale and could add a very valuable business avenue to our present offerings,” Jaremalm added.
The project timing and associated activities will be decided through dialogue with the relevant authorities in Thailand, Midsummer said. This process has not yet been initiated.
In 2021, PV Tech reported that Midsummer was developing a similar thin-film solar cell plant in Italy and recently secured €8 million (US$8.6 million) to support its development.
Midsummer is also planning a 200MW copper indium gallium selenide CIGS thin film cell factory in Flen, in its native Sweden.
The broader Southeast Asian region is a significant growth area for the solar PV industry. A recent report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found that the region could play a significant role in balance of system (BOS) component manufacturing for the solar industry.
Thailand and other countries in the region already play host to significant Chinese-owned solar manufacturing capacity, but the IEEFA said that tracker, inverter, racking and other BOS manufacturing – largely to target domestic markets as solar deployments increase – could introduce millions of dollars of investment to the region.
