In the midst of a debate on European energy sovereignty, the Lyon-based industrial start-up Carbon is preparing a very ambitious project for a gigafactory with 10,000 employees that would produce photovoltaic panels in France by 2030, now massively imported from Asia.
“We can no longer depend on China for such a strategic product!” says Pascal Richard, CEO of Carbon, interviewed by AFP.
Nine of the world’s top ten manufacturers are Chinese and South Korean, backed by their huge domestic markets. The solar panel, in fact, is at the heart of French and European energy projects. A bill “for the acceleration of renewable energy” must be presented in mid-September in the Council of Ministers.
delay in French
It foresees the multiplication of the possibilities of installing solar panels (compulsory equipment in large car parks, possibility of installation in abandoned roads, etc.) and the simplification of certain procedures, criticized, in addition, by environmental NGOs.
To compensate for the French delay with its European partners, Emmanuel Macron announced in February that he wanted to multiply projects tenfold to reach 100 gigawatts (GW) installed in 2050, compared to 13 in 2022.
And again: these targets were set before the war in Ukraine and the widespread awareness of dependence on Russian gas, which also led the Commission in May to present its “REPowerEU” plan aimed at quadrupling photovoltaic production in the EU by 2030. .
Carbon intends to take its share of this “European energy sovereignty” cake, explains Mr. Richard, former director in France of Germany’s SMA (inverters for photovoltaics).
By 2025, Carbon plans to build a first panel factory with an installed capacity of 5 GW, employing 3,000 people and rising to 20 GW and 10,000 people by 2030. Its founders expect a large-scale effect on prices. The implantation site – classified Seveso – does not stop, but will occupy 80 hectares.
Investor hunting
The investment required for this fully integrated project should amount to 1.3 billion euros for the first stage, “5 to 6 billion” in total.
The hunt for investors is launched, in particular for French and European subsidies. A first fundraising “of several tens of millions of euros” is planned for the first quarter of 2023. It will be used for “the constitution of teams” and “the continuation of studies”.
Mantra of the five partners in equal parts (20%), including the Grenoble-based manufacturer of ovens for the photovoltaic industry ECM (500 people, €150 million turnover, €20 million Ebitda). “The entire value chain will be integrated” once the raw material, initially polysilicon from Germany or Norway, is purchased.
The ingots, the wafers, the cells and thus the final panels will be “made entirely in France”, where other European market players are content to assemble Chinese components. “There is no project of this magnitude” in Europe, say those responsible for Carbon.
“Verkor del solar”
Large energy companies are already integrating Carbon panels in their pre-configuration of solar power plants, says Laurent Pélissier, CEO of ECM, “because they want to diversify their supplier portfolios and no longer find themselves in situations where there is no longer supply, or with prices that change suddenly.
This is the case of the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR), which announced in May a “massive” investment plan in photovoltaics (1,000 million euros), via the “solarization” of roofs or degraded land.
“For almost the same price, which will be a challenge, and the same performance, of course we will have a preference” for Carbon, says Julien Marchal, director of new energies, lamenting having “sometimes lost 6 months on certain projects due to the difficulties of ‘supply’.
“We would also reduce transportation risk, currency risk and geopolitical risk, like when China abruptly closed its factories for its zero covid strategy. The carbon footprint of the French panels would also be much better, even more so if there is recycling in the spot”, adds this person in charge.
In his eyes, Carbon could even become “the Verkor of solar energy”, in reference to this Grenoble start-up, supported in particular by Renault, which will install a gigantic battery factory in Dunkirk.
Source: BFM TV
