Meyer Burger

Between 2025 and 2029, the investment company of the Swedish furniture group will purchase solar modules produced in the US by the Swiss photovoltaic manufacturer. The agreement is the basis for Meyer Burger to increase annual production capacity at its Arizona site to around 2 GW.

As efficiency records tumble and devices become more stable, Europe is seeing the beginnings of a race to commercialize high-efficiency perovskite-silicon tandem solar products, reports Valerie Thompson.

Swiss PV manufacturer Meyer Burger hit its 321 MW production volume target last year, and its expansion into the gigawatt scale is already underway, as it recently completed two additional purchase agreements with major customers. It has also applied for hundreds of millions of funding support from the EU Innovation Fund, with a final decision to be made in the summer.

With calls for a revival in European PV manufacturing becoming more urgent, the Environmental, Social, and Governance credentials of its PV producers are being touted as a way in which manufacturing can be supported or even protected. The case for the ESG credentials of European manufacturing was advanced by multiple speakers at the 2023 SolarPower Summit this week in Brussels.

Norsun, which operates a hydroelectric-powered factory in Norway, has agreed to sell wafers to Meyer Burger, which plans to expand its annual solar cell production capacity to 3 GW by 2024.

The photovoltaic industry is expected to achieve annual global expansion of 300 GW as early as this year. That sounds like a lot, but is it enough? In view of climate change and rising energy demand, it is time for a new vision.

Meyer Burger is working with several research institutes in Switzerland and Germany to integrate perovskite tandem technology into its manufacturing processes.

Poland was the EU’s biggest solar jobs market last year, thanks to a national rooftop incentive program, but Germany’s push to repatriate solar manufacturing will help the bloc’s PV powerhouse back to the number one slot in three years’ time, according to SolarPower Europe.

The new US Inflation Reduction Act could facilitate the development of 155 GW of utility-scale solar capacity by 2030, but it will take time to gear up, says Rystad Energy.

Switzerland’s Meyer Burger is accelerating the expansion of its solar panel production capacity, following the extension of the US solar tax credit for PV manufacturers and an order from developer DE Shaw for 3.75 GW of US-made heterojunction modules.