Swedish manufacturer Nordcell has revealed plans to build a 1.2GW module manufacturing plant in northern Sweden.
The company said it was evaluating sites for the facility and hoped to make a final decision soon, with production slated to begin in the first half of 2025. At full output, Nordcell said it hoped to produce 2.5 million modules annually at the plant.
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Nordcell highlighted the fact that Europe remains almost entirely reliant on module imports from China and Southeast Asia. Although the EU has ambitions to manufacture 40% of all net-zero technologies, such as solar panels, domestically by 2030, that target was “highly unlikely” to be met based on the current pace of manufacturing capacity additions, Nordcell said.
“The EU is estimated to install around one billion solar panels by 2030. Unless something changes, 97% of them will be non-European panels,” said Vahid Toosi, co-founder at Nordcell.
The company said its facility would be powered entirely by non-fossil fuel energy sources, potentially giving it a competitive advantage over imports that fail to meet Europe’s CBAM carbon tariff, due to come into force in 2026.
Jochen Rentsch, head of technology transfer division photovoltaics at research institute, Fraunhofer ISE, added: “We’ve partnered with Nordcell from the start, initiating an early life cycle assessment to analyse the environmental impact of production. It became evident that Sweden holds significant advantages globally in reducing the carbon footprint in PV production.”
The company also said its plant would emphasise “scale, AI-driven automation and state-of-the-art quality”.
Peter Fath, board member of the European Solar Manufacturing Council and spokesman of the German Solar Machine Makers at VDMA, added: “Nordcell is fundamentally rethinking the standard production blueprint and deploying next level automation combined with the globally most advanced production equipment. By this, Nordcell will be able to produce best in class-solar panels at a competitive cost.”
Realisation of Nordcell’s plans would come as a welcome boost to Europe’s beleaguered PV manufacturing industry, which has been warning of imminent collapse in the face of competition from aboard, notably China. The European Commission has faced sustained pressure to put in place measures to support the industry and earlier this month agreed in principle to offer support to the industry, without giving further details.
