JA Solar JV starts work on Egypt PV and storage manufacturing plant

JA Solar is a lead partner in a joint venture that broke ground this week on a new solar PV cell, module and energy storage manufacturing facility in Egypt.

The US$210 million ATUM Solar complex in the Sokhna area of the Suez Canal Economic Zone will comprise three separate manufacturing facilities totalling 200 square metres.

One of these will produce 2GW of solar PV cells annually, 100% for export. The other two will house lines producing 2GW of PV modules annually and 1GWh of energy storage systems, targeting local and regional markets.

The venture, which was formed this summer, is backed by four main bodies: JA Solar, as the technology investor; the Egyptian firm AH; the UAE investor Global South Utilities; and Infinity Capital from Bahrain.

Among the officials attending a groundbreaking ceremony on 15 December were Egypt’s deputy prime minister, Kamel El-Wazir, and Walid Gamal El-Din, chairman of the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, both of whom emphasised the project’s role in creating local jobs and reducing Egypt’s reliance on imported clean energy products.

The project is expected to create 850 direct jobs and increase local content by sourcing Egyptian aluminium and glass.

The project continues a trend of major Chinese PV manufacturers setting up production facilities in the Middle East and North Africa to circumvent stringent US trade restrictions on imports from these companies’ production hubs in Southeast Asia. Egypt is not currently subject to anti-dumping or countervailing (AD/CVD) duties on solar exports to the US.

UThe ATUM Solar complex, in which JA Solar is a JV partner, broke ground earlier this week in Egypt’s Suez Canal area. Image: SCZONE.

This article is reposted from PV Tech. Written: Ben Willis.

All rights are reserved by the original author.