3SUN set to reach 3GW of module capability at Italian plant in 2023

• The solar module production subsidiary of Italian utility Enel is intending to scale up annual production capability to 3GW in the second fifty percent of 2023, the company has actually confirmed.

Nameplate ability at 3SUN's plant in Sicily is currently 200MW annually for bifacial heterojunction modules, with all output shipped to Enel Green Power The United States and Canada for usage in solar projects in the US.

That figure will be increase over the next two years, with 3SUN intending to offer future products from the plant to both the distributed generation and utility-scale solar market, Enel Green Power informed PV Tech.

Established in 2011, the Sicily plant produced thin-film modules up until 2017. Backed by European Union funds, Enel Green Power ushered in the new production line for HJ innovation in 2019, with the facility currently with the ability of generating 500,000 modules yearly.

Enel Green Power last year introduced that it attained a heterojunction solar cell efficiency of 24.63% through a partnership with the French National Solar Energy Institute. The company claimed the bifacial cell efficiency was raised by around 0.7% thanks to improved processes of layer deposition and also screen metallisation based upon heterojunction processes making use of devices developed inside.

Having accomplished effective solar research and development, the firm is currently looking to boost range at the Sicily plant, stated Salvatore Bernabei, Chief Executive Officer of Enel Green Power, at a session throughout this week's SolarPower Top event, arranged by profession association SolarPower Europe.

Reaching the 3GW-per-year turning point will make the 3SUN center firm affordable in terms of expense, Bernabei said, due to the fact that presently "we are just affordable in regards to efficiency".

It was suggested in another panel discussion at the digital occasion that European solar business may need as much as EUR7 billion (US$ 8.51 billion) in capital expense to scale up solar production to be globally affordable.