The Norwegian solar panel manufacturer Rec Group is planning to set up a giant plant in Hambach, south of Sarreguemines, which should employ up to 1,500 people from 2022. It will be located at the Smart automotive plant, sold earlier this week by the Daimler Group to the British Ineos corporation.
Rec Solar initially aims to produce around 4.5 million solar panels a year and will invest 681 million Euros in the project. The planning permit has been submitted.
This first phase, which is to launch in 2022, should create around 1,500 jobs, which could increase to 2,500 jobs, with 9 million panels manufactured, in 2025. These would produce a nominal power of 4 gigawatt-peak (GWp), “the equivalent of a 900 megawatt nuclear reactor”, according to the company.
The “final decision” for the launch of the first phase (2 GWp) should fall in “mid-March”, says the group’s director general, Cemil Seber.
It will depend on two main criteria: the result of the social consultation on the project, which will begin next Monday, and the confirmation of the investment financing.
On this second point, “we will of course draw upon any public aid we are entitled to”, said Cemil Seber.
The resulting plant would be one of the largest of its kind in Europe, along with the one planned by Swiss company Meyer-Burger in Germany. This in a market largely dominated by Asian manufacturers.
The plant’s capacity should represent around 10% of the European market, which should “definitely be large enough to absorb our production”, according to Cemil Seber.
Rec Solar employs around 2,000 people with a revenue of 500 million in 2019. They currently have a photovoltaic manufacturing plant in Singapore.
The group wants to establish itself in Hambach to be “at the heart of the burgeoning European market”. Shipping from Singapore takes four two six weeks, which is too long.
A research and development centre will be built alongside the plant, around the “innovative” manufacturing technology of “heterojunction”, developed by Rec Group alongside the French nuclear energy commission.
