French renewable energy start-up Holosolis, founded by independent EU agency EIT InnoEnergy, has announced plans to build a 5GW solar PV module assembly plant in northeastern France.

Initial module production will start in 2025 and the plant will reach its full 5GW planned capacity in 2027. It will operate near Sarreguemine in northeastern France, close to the country's border with Germany, and will create up to 1,700 local jobs.

Other partners in the project include real estate firm IDEC Group, which specializes in the rooftop solar market, and French solar developer TSE. The company focuses on agricultural photovoltaics, energy solar power and dual land use for agriculture.

The facility will produce solar modules for three markets, residential roof panels, commercial and industrial scale roof panels, and agricultural photovoltaic modules. The companies involved have not yet said which technologies will be deployed at the plant.

Holosolis CEO Jan Jacob Boom-Wichers said: "We will manufacture the most energy-efficient modules, using the latest photovoltaic technology, achieving the lowest carbon footprint and the highest social standards. Economies of scale and automation of production lines will allow for competitive costs against global giants in the industry.

The announcement is the latest in a string of new European module production plants after the EU launched its European Solar PV Industry Alliance in December. The alliance aims to accelerate the deployment of solar PV across the EU by developing a solar industry ecosystem. During the launch, EIT InnoEnergy will act as the consortium's secretariat, as the group aims to generate 30GW of photovoltaic capacity by 2025.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement at the time that for our companies and our employees, this means translating skills into high-quality jobs and innovation into mass production, which requires Credit to the simpler and faster framework. Better access to financing will allow our critical cleantech industries to scale up rapidly.

In France in particular, plans for module production are already moving forward in 2023. Another renewable energy start-up, Carbon, will start building a 5GW solar cell and 3.5GW module assembly plant in Marseille, which is expected to be operational by the end of 2025. Solar company Reden Solar plans to increase its module production capacity in France from 65MW to 200MW per year by 2024.Editor/XingWentao