Carbon names location for prepared gigawatt manufacturing facility

• French business Carbon SAS has named the southerly French community of Fos-sur-mer in the Bouches-du-Rhône department as the site for its scheduled solar manufacturing facility.

The project, announced in March 2022, imagines an annual production capacity of five gigawatts (GW) for solar cells and also 3.5 GW for modules in a preliminary expansion phase. The factory, for which EUR 1.5 billion ($ 1.6 billion) is to be invested, is set up to open up in late 2025 and get to full capacity the following year. By 2030, Carbon prepares to produce 30 GW of wafers, 20 GW of cells as well as 15 GW of modules at several sites in Europe, according to existing plans.

Public examination is currently beginning for the 60-hectare site in Fos-sur-mer, as well as Carbon plans to come close to the Commission nationale du débat public (CNDP) in charge of this "soon." To name a few points, the proximity to the port of Marseille is an argument in favor of the municipality on the Côte d'Azur, the firm claimed.