The Alsatian manufacturer Voltec Solar and the Institut Photovoltaïque d’Île-de-France (IPVF), key players in the French solar industry, have joined forces to create a new photovoltaic industry. The « France PV Industrie » project aims to build a gigafactory for solar panels based on a new technology, with a dual objective: to produce more efficient solar panels locally and to create a sustainable industry, based on a fast-growing market and a breakthrough technology.

Within the framework of the France 2030 investment plan, the government has affirmed its desire to support ambitious projects that will contribute to increasing France’s industrial and technological influence. For Voltec Solar and the IPVF, photovoltaics must become one of the major national industrial sectors and this is the objective of the France PV Industrie project, which has been submitted to the ADEME’s Call for Projects for France 2030.

Faced with global competition and the problems of natural resource consumption and circularity, Voltec Solar and the Institut Photovoltaïque d’Île-de-France are proposing to implement a breakthrough technology: the 4T Perovskite/Silicon Tandem.

« This is a technological revolution that not only allows us to achieve a 30% efficiency at the photovoltaic module level, compared to the best efficiency currently achieved by traditional technologies, but also reduces the consumption of energy and materials necessary for manufacturing and makes use of materials from recycling, » says Roch Drozdowski-Strehl, Managing Director of the IPVF.

The result of more than eight years of work and research, this innovative technology has now reached a sufficient level of maturity to launch its large-scale industrialisation and the first products will be marketed as early as 2025, with a gradual ramp-up to a manufacturing capacity of 5GW by 2030.

« Tandem technology will be the dominant photovoltaic technology of the next decade. It is likely to shake up the competitive situation and France is currently ahead of the game, provided that the industrial deployment, which is intended to be ambitious, takes place. This is one of the conditions for success in photovoltaics, » says Lucas Weiss, Managing Director of Voltec Solar.

Based on cooperation between research and industry, the France PV Industrie project was built to meet the challenges of reindustrialisation and the energy transition. « It is an emblematic project for our country, to ensure the creation of jobs and local value, in a positive dynamic that we share, » concluded Lucas Weiss and Roch Drozdowski-Strehl jointly.

Voltec Solar           
Founded in 2009, Voltec Solar is France’s leading photovoltaic manufacturer with a production capacity that will be increased to 500MW by 2023. Committed to an eco-design approach, the company, which employs 120 people, designs and produces sustainable photovoltaic modules with low environmental impact and high efficiency.

IPVF       
Created in 2014, the IPVF is an Institute for Energy Transition built around leaders from industry, public research, and equipment manufacturers. Based on the Saclay plateau, the IPVF brings together 150 researchers and a technological platform of around 100 photovoltaic solar cell manufacturing and characterisation facilities.

Contact Voltec Solar: Lucas Weiss – l.weiss@voltec-solar.com

IPVF contact: Roch Drozdowski-Strehl – roch.drozdowski@ipvf.fr