Silicon ingot producer Norwegian Crystals is planning a five-fold improve in output after securing an funding from EIT InnoEnergy.
With permits in place to fabricate ingots within the north of Norway, Norwegian Crystals already has offtake and provide agreements organized.
The funding comes weeks after the corporate secured a silicon wafer provide settlement with heterojunction cell and module producer Meyer Burger.
Norwegian Crystals’ ingots have a carbon footprint that may be a third of these manufactured in Asia, as a result of proximity to renewable vitality sources for manufacturing and lowered emissions associated to logistics, in line with EIT InnoEnergy.
Blake Barthelmess, chief operations officer at Norwegian Crystals, informed PV Tech earlier this yr that the vitality combine the place the corporate’s manufacturing plant is positioned in northern Norway is 99% hydropower and 1% wind, whereas the corporate’s reduced-carbon footprint can also be boosted by its procurement technique of sourcing polysilicon from the US and Germany.
Gøran Bye, CEO of Norwegian Crystals, stated with the ability to companion with EIT InnoEnergy to speed up its manufacturing is a major step ahead for the corporate.
“The connections and assist it could actually present will guarantee we deliver extra silicon ingot manufacturing capability to Europe so we are able to fulfil our ambitions of rising at tempo over the following few years to assist the business because it scales up,” he added.
Supported by the EU’s Institute of Innovation and Know-how, EIT InnoEnergy is a local weather and renewable vitality tech investor and is the driving pressure behind the European Photo voltaic Initiative, launched final yr to scale up Europe’s PV manufacturing business.
EIT InnoEnergy has greater than 40 investments within the European PV worth chain, in line with its CEO Diego Pavia, who stated the investor will use its “deep area experience to assist the scaling of Norwegian Crystals”.
