Russia's Hevel to boost solar manufacturing capacity to 250 MW

Russian solar modules maker Hevel LLC said today it will increase the capacity of its production facility to 250 MW per year by the end of 2018.

The company completed the first stage of the modernisation at its facility in Novocheboksarsk earlier this year, raising its capacity to 160 MW a year and shifting to the production of heterojunction solar modules.

Hevel, a joint venture between asset management group Renova and government-owned technology company Rusnano, said it is now launching a second stage of the modernisation. It will invest about RUB 2 billion (USD 34m/EUR 29m) in the project. Part of the funds will come from the Industrial Development Fund, which has approved the provision of a RUB-500-million soft loan. The fund also supported the first stage of the upgrade.

Chief executive Igor Shakhrai said the expansion project will enable the company to launch heterojunction modules with 72 solar cells and ratings of above 400 W.

Hevel says that the heterojunction technology offers average cell efficiency of above 22% and that the modules perform better at high and low temperatures, which expands their geographical reach.

(RUB 10 = USD 0.167/EUR 0.145)

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