Powerfield plans 300 MW module factory in the Netherlands

Dutch solar developer Powerfield has announced that it is planning to set up a solar module manufacturing facility in Noord-Groningen, northern Netherlands.

The company said the facility will have the capacity to produce 1.2 million modules per year, and that it will initially invest between €15 million ($15.8 million) and €20 million ($21.1 million) in the new facility. The company added that it expects to start manufacturing activities at the factory in late 2018. Construction is scheduled to start this year. Over 100 employees are expected to initially work at the site.

In a statement to pv magazine, the company’s managing director Elvin Ter Horst specified that the facility’s initial capacity is yet to be decided and that it will be somewhere between 60 and 150 MW. “After three years,” Ter Horst stressed, “we will achieve full capacity of 300MW.”

50% of the modules manufactured at the facility will be used for the company’s own PV projects, while the remaining 50% will be distributed on the Dutch solar market. “Later on, when the factory is at full capacity, we will expand marketing and sales activities to northwestern Europe,” Ter Horst said.

Powerfield is currently developing several large-scale PV projects in the Netherlands under the SDE+ program, including a 103 MW PV plant in Hoogezand-Sappemeer. The company is also planning solar projects in Senegal, Aruba and Costa Rica.