Iran on the verge of obtaining technology to manufacture solar panels

With water and electricity increasingly pressuring the country, seeking out alternative sources seems quite logical. While a more judicious use of water can save a lot,solar panels can tame solar rays for consumption, contributing to a brighter future.

Use of solar panelsto generate electricity in the country has drawn the attention of IDRO, resulting in the organization obtaining the A to Z of the know-how required to manufacture solar panels domestically. This is a key achievement considering the emphasis on alternative energies in the country’s 2025 Outlook Plan.

In line with this, IDRO and SCHMID Group inked a memorandum of understanding, starting a collaboration to establish a fully integrated photovoltaic manufacturing plant in Iran. The state of the art manufacturing facility will include the entire photovoltaics value chain, including production of polysilicon, wafer, solar cell, and module.

The document was signed by senior officials of the two bodies, namely, IDRO Deputy for Renovation and Implementation Saeed Faeghi and SCHMID Deputy Chairman Axel Bang Hard.

Under the terms of the agreement, SCHMID Group will deliver technology, manufacturing lines and plants for setting-up one of the most advanced integrated PV manufacturing facilities worldwide. Starting with an annual production capacity of 200 MW, the project has the goal to expand the capacity to more than 1000 MW per year in the future.

Iran is progressing with its strategic plan to diversify the country's energy resources by increasing the share of renewable energies in the country's energy mix, putting major emphasis on technology ownership and highest degree of localization.

 

Highlighting the unique economic and development opportunities in Iran, specifically regarding energy supply and sustainable development, Dr. Mansour Moazami, Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade & IDRO Chairman of the Board said: "As an industrial development organization, IDRO is leading establishments of new industries in Iran and has decided for investment in solar photovoltaics manufacturing value chain. Our investment is based on a technology transfer and development framework targeting local and global PV markets. We started collaboration and signed the agreement with SCHMID Group due to their competencies and the state of the art technology ownership."

 

 

Christian Schmid, President and CEO of the SCHMID Group, regards this agreement as another milestone for SCHMID Group in maintaining its position as the leading supplier of turnkey manufacturing solutions in emerging PV markets: "We are proud to start collaboration with a respected organization like IDRO and consider this agreement as an excellent opportunity to establish a long term partnership in an important PV future market. The fully integrated manufacturing facility together with the excellent academic infrastructure in Iran will enable an ideal PV research and development hub in Iran and the joint R&D collaboration will be an integral part for our partnership with IDRO."

“The project aims to manufacture solar panels from Silica,” Fa’eqi told the press.Solar panels can be utilized to generate electricity for home use, city lighting. Also, the equipments are an important component of power plants.

“Currently, studies related to the economic dimension of solar project have been conducted and we received pricing schemes from the German company last year,” said Akbar Hasanipour, IDRO implementation deputy.

As one of the market leaders, SCHMID supplies highly efficient equipment for the total value chain of photovoltaics. The product portfolio hereby comprises individual items of equipment for wafer, cell and module production as well as turnkey production lines and complete plant solutions ranging from polysilicon production to solutions for green field plants.

The SCHMID Group has its headquarters in Freudenstadt, Germany. Worldwide there are more than 1,200 employees working at 13 locations for the company group.

Hasanipour further said the German company has also expressed readiness for transfer of technology to Iran, saying, “nearly €300 million has been allocated to the project and annually, the project aims at almost an annual production capacity of 200 MW.”

According to initial assessments, the project will need almost €298 million and 3 trillion rials.Current electricity generation capacity of the country stands at 70,000 MW, slated to rise to a high of 100,000 MW by the end of the country’s 2025 Outlook Plan, out of which as much as 1,000 MW should be generated from solar resources.

Highlighting the importance of developing the technology to manufacture solar panels in domestically, Hasanipour stated that “there has been a drop in the country’s electricity generation from hydropower resources due to a decrease in water resource.

Since it is forecast that the water crisis will continue to be with Iran in the years to come, we must focus on renewable sources of energy, he said.

On key factors which need to be taken into account in building the solar production line, Hasanipour said one is to have access to Silica mines. Additionally, if the goal is to erect power plants, geographical considerations such as sunny conditions are a priority, he stressed.

Initially, 10 percent of financing will be from IDRO resources and as the project goes ahead, foreign financing will also be used.

 

Iran obtains technology to build solar panels

Mohammad Reza Zehtaban, technical consultant on the project,shed more light on technological details of the project, saying “the highlight of the project is that the complete technological package required to produce the product will be transferred to the.”

He continued to say that manufacturing solar panels has a long history in Iran, with the country being among the first ones in the region which started limited activity. For years, Iran continued to produce solar panels inside the country in the form of SKD production.

Considering that Iran is home to huge deposits of Silica, as the main raw material for the production of solar panels, the project will bring with itself the whole production cycle of manufacturing solar panels. The SCHMID company has worked out a long-term cooperation framework and decides to continue researching into the technology in collaboration with IDRO even after the project is finished. Currently, some reginal countries including Turkey have made good progress in this field and almost all countries try to manufacture the product inside their countries rather than import them, Zehtaban noted.

Germany, the land of solar energy

According to formal figures by the International Energy Agency, Germany is ranked among top ten countries with highest installed and operational solar capacities. With an annual capacity of almost 38,259 MW of solar energy, it has occupied the first place with other countries such as China, Japan, Italy, the U.S., France, Spain, Australia, Belgium, and South Korean coming next.

Over the past 10 years, use of solar energy in Germany has tripled and the German government as the main supporter of energy producers has kept on drafting new legislature to keep costs of solar energy production to a minimum.

Neuhardenberg, Templin, and SolarparkMeurosolar parks are among biggest onesin the world, all three located in Germany.Currently, more than one-third of all solar panels and almost half of wind turbines in the world are exported from Germany to international markets. Also, made-in-Germany hydropower generators are the most efficient ones international customers have ever utilized. The country continues to move ahead unrivalled in the field given its emphasis on developing the industry. Germany’s role in pushing forward the renewable energy industry in the world has compelled many international energy organizations to hail the country’s responsibility to realization of the goals of the renewable energy industry.

Germany plans to step up the share of solar energy in its energy mix up to 18 percent, 40 percent, and 60 percent by 2020, 2030, and 2050, respectively.

 

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