Italian solar manufacturing machinery producer Ecoprogetti has installed a new, 250MW automated production line at a plant in Bulgaria.
The site is owned by Bulgarian company Solar Panel Eood and will produce solar modules in an automated process with “100% European materials”, Ecoprogetti claimed.
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The company said that its automated technology is suitable for producing both Passivated Emitter/Rear Contact (PERC) and Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact (TOPCon) cells and modules. It also said that the production line contained “state-of-the-art testing equipment” which enabled it to offer 30-year warranties on the modules.
In a public statement, Ecoprogretti said: “Every stage of the production process has been meticulously optimised to ensure maximum efficiency and precision with the fewest possible manpower. The machines supplied to Solar Panel Eood are of the highest automation level, with advanced methods of full traceability and production monitoring.”
Solar Power Eood is a fairly unknown quantity, though some Bulgarian media outlets covered the announcement of a factory plan in March 2023.
Whilst small, this announcement is still another brick in the wall of reshoring Europe’s solar manufacturing industry. Ecoprogretti is headquartered in Italy with offices in the Philippines, India, the US and the UAE and claims that its manufacturing equipment is “100% made in Europe”.
Whilst direct silicon-based solar manufacturing has been stumbling in Europe, equipment manufacturing may be on more stable footing. PV Tech head of research Finlay Colville said in February that “PV production equipment and materials suppliers with facilities in Europe are seeing an uptick in order activity.” He also highlighted the significance of the expanding manufacturing bases in India and the US for these companies.