Green light for construction of Europe's largest solar panel factory in Moselle

The new factory, presented by the company behind the project, HoloSolis, as "the largest in Europe", should ultimately create 1.900 jobs for an investment of 850 million euros, according to the prefecture.

This signature constitutes "a very important, structuring and fundamental step in the project, because without a building permit, of course, you cannot undertake anything", Jan Jacob Boom-Wichers, the president of HoloSolis, an offshoot of the European group InnoEnergy, told AFP.

And to obtain environmental authorization in a relatively short time for France, HoloSolis explained that it had "worked extremely closely with the Region, with the Moselle prefecture, with all the different associations" to "meet their expectations," he continued.

When operating at full capacity, from 2028, the plant will ensure an annual production of photovoltaic panels with a cumulative power representing the energy consumption of "one million homes", according to the company.

This will represent the production of 10 million photovoltaic panels for a total capacity of 5 Gigawatts, which will meet "around 8% of European imports of Chinese panels", according to the company.

By 2025, HoloSolis will be working on "all the detailed studies" to "calculate to the nearest centimeter how the factory will be built."

Then comes the time for calls for tenders and the selection of suppliers and partners for the actual construction of the building.

At the same time, negotiations are continuing, and many future European customers have already signed letters of intent or have committed to investing in the plant, according to Jan Jacob Boom-Wichers.

"We are delighted that the company has now obtained all the authorisations to begin a new, more concrete and operational phase of the realisation of this project and its ambitions", also declared Roland Roth, president of the Sarreguemines Confluences urban community (CASC), where the site will be built.

The establishment of the factory will offer the CASC "a new dynamic demographic phase as well as significant economic and fiscal benefits", with "positive effects on the creation of housing, the growth of training" and even "investments in public facilities", he continued.