Meyer Burger gets €22.5 million in public subsidies for heterojunction cell factory

From pv magazine Germany

Switzerland-based solar module manufacturer Meyer Burger has secured up to €22.5 million in public funds for the construction of its heterojunction solar cell factory in Thalheim, Germany.

The company was granted a €15 million grant from the regional government of Saxony-Anhalt, where the manufacturing will take place, and the German central government. Another grant of €7.5 million comes from another fund aimed to improve the regional economic structure. Both grants were received by Meyer Burger at the end of 2020.

A report by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE was prepared for the approval of environmental aid. This confirms that the planned production based on Meyer Burger's heterojunction technology has considerable environmental advantages compared to conventional cell production, the company said. Meyer Burger's investments were classified as “exceptionally innovative and environmentally friendly,” the Swiss company continued.

Meyer Burger is currently setting up its cell production in Thalheim and a module production in Freiberg. Production is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2021 and both factories will initially have an annual capacity of 400 MW each. Cell production is to be expanded to 1.4 GW of annual capacity as soon as possible. However, this is subject to successful debt financing, Meyer Burger said.

The headline of this article was changed on 05/01/21 to reflect it is Meyer Burger's HJT cell factory which will receive the grants, not its module factory, as previously stated.