Talesun, the Chinese-headquartered solar manufacturer, and South African company ARTSolar have commenced operations at a 325MW PV module manufacturing facility.
Located in South Africa, the facility is a collaboration between Talesun Solar and ARTSolar, and comes as the country has begun to focus more intently on deploying renewable energy.
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In its statement, Talesun expressed support for local manufacturing in South Africa and the future of the collaboration between the two companies.
Since the introduction of the Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme in 2011 to increase the renewables capacity in South Africa’s electricity grid, the country has seen increasing changes to its power generation landscape. Recent policy changes have been enacted by the government to attempt to accelerate solar deployment.
This week, the World Bank announced US$497 million in funding to repurpose a coal-fired plant with 220MW of solar PV and wind capacity as part of South Africa’s Just Transition Framework. Through this framework the country has emphasised the impact of its energy transition on local communities, and Talesun echoed this focus in its statements upon announcing this facility.
The company said the project “serves as a catalyst and model for the quality-focused development of not only the local PV industry but also the whole of the local economy”.
Talesun currently has a manufacturing capacity of 16GW of single crystal PV cells and 20GW of PV modules. ARTSolar says that it is the only South African manufacturer that specialises in utility-scale PV production.