Silicon factory eyes 120 MW capacity per year

Italy’s MegaGroup said its plant for silicon ingots and wafers, set to open in Bosanska Dubica by the end of 2016, will have a nameplate capacity of 120 MW per year during the first phase of the project, SeeNews reported.

The first phase of the construction is worth EUR 12.5 million, while the company’s entire planned investment is valued at EUR 35 million, according to MegaGroup’s press release. The company said it recently signed a land purchase agreement for a 20,000 square metre plot with the Municipality of Dubica, located in the north of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the construction of the facility.

“We aim to start the production of mono and policrystalline silicon ingots and wafers by the end of 2016 in order to provide the raw materials for cells and modules production. This is the first step towards the creation of a world photovoltaic hub,” MegaGroup’s president Franco Traverso said.

Output will be earmarked mainly for MegaCell, a subsidiary which produces bifacial solar cells and modules in Padua, and also for joint venture plants that the group has been establishing abroad for the production of bifacial cells and modules and innovative bifacial solar systems. MegaGroup added that it chose the Bosnian industrial site, already equipped with infrastructure, because of its favourable conditions for energy-intensive production.

The Dubica plant is set to be powered by green hydroelectric energy and will employ 90 workers, the report said. MegaGroup, founded by Traverso in 1981, is a holding company consisting of MegaCell, MegaEngineering and MegaCivic.