3Sun Gigafactory in Catania to become europe’s largest solar panel factory
Enel Chairman Michele Crisostomo, Enel CEO Francesco Starace, the Italian Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, the Director-General for Energy of the European Commission Ditte Juul Jørgensen, the President of the Region of Sicily Renato Schifani, and the Catania Municipality’s Special Commissioner – Prefect Piero Mattei visited the construction site of the 3Sun Gigafactory in Catania. 3Sun will become Europe’s largest solar panel factory by 2024, with an annual production capacity of 3 GW, and will leverage on an innovative, one-of-a-kind technology globally.
The 3Sun Gigafactory expansion will increase the factory’s current annual production capacity of 200 MW to about 3 GW per year by initially developing photovoltaic modules using silicon heterojunction technology (HJT), which offers improved performance compared with conventional technologies. A ground-breaking technology called ‘Tandem’ will then be implemented, significantly outperforming the efficiency of today’s photovoltaic cells, delivering over 30% more efficiency and improving panel reliability at the same time. The expansion process, which began in April 2022 and is expected to be completed by 2024, will consist of two stages: an operational capacity of 400 MW will be available from September 2023, while full operational capacity will be reached by July 2024. ‘Tandem’ photovoltaic modules, on the other hand, will be produced starting from late 2025.
The investment is estimated to amount to approximately 600 million euros. This project, which is called ‘TANGO’, i.e. iTaliAN Giga factOry, was one of seven initiatives selected by the EU Commission as part of the first Innovation Fund call for large-scale projects, and was awarded funding worth up to 118 million euros. The project was also submitted in the call to access the funds in Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) relating to Mission M2C2 Investment 5.1 ‘Renewable energy and batteries’ – sub-investment 5.1.1 ‘PV Technology’, with a Development Contract managed by the current Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT). These two funds could bring the total funding for the project up to a maximum amount of 188 million euros.
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