Russian group starts building 1.3 GW solar factory in Kaliningrad

Unigreen Energy, a unit of Russia-based Ream Management – which holds a controlling stake in Russian PV module manufacturer Hevel Solar – has started the development of a vertically integrated solar module factory in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania.

“The factory will have a capacity of 1.3 GW for the n-type wafers, 1 GW for the solar cells, and around 500 MW for the PV modules,” a company spokesperson told pv magazine at Intersolar this week in Munich, Germany. “The plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) production equipment was supplied by South Korea-based Jusung Engineering.”

The new facility will likely produce solar panels featuring the same heterojunction technology as the panles manufactured by Hevel Solar. However, the factory will exclusively serve non-Russian markets.

Limak Marash, the Russian subsidiary of Turkish conglomerate Limak, is building the RUB 24.7 billion ($343 million) EnCore factory. Completion is scheduled for March 2023.

Ream Management is owned by Russian businessman Mikhail Sivoldayev.