Sunrise brief: Li-ion battery plant is headed to Tennessee

Also on the rise: MiaSole Hi-Tech ekes out a tandem solar cell efficiency improvement, Trimark tapped to provide SCADA for massive solar+storage project, and JinkoSolar glass supply deal will support 59 GW of production.

February 18, 2021 David Wagman

Microvast will produce li-ion batteries in Clarksville, Tenn.

Image: City of Clarksville

Vehicle battery maker Microvast said it plans to spend $220 million to set up a lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Microvast will renovate and expand an existing facility to make battery cells, modules and packs.

Earlier this month, Microvast agreed to merge with Tuscan Holdings Corp. The merger is expected to provide up to $822 million to fund capacity expansion and enable Microvast to meet signed contracts that have a total value of more than $1.5 billion.

Founded in 2006 and based in Houston, Microvast is involved from core battery chemistry (cathode, anode, electrolyte, and separator) to battery packs. The U.S. battery manufacturing venture has been in the works since 2019.

Tandem solar cell efficiency mark

MiaSolé Hi-Tech Corp. and European Solliance Solar Research said they achieved a power conversion efficiency of 26.5% on a tandem solar cell. The architecture combines two thin-film solar cell technologies: a top rigid semi-transparent perovskite solar cell with a bottom flexible copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) cell. The conversion efficiency was achieved by optimizing the bandgap and the efficiency of both the rigid semi-transparent perovskite top cell and the flexible CIGS bottom cell. The CIGS was roll-to-roll produced on steel foil, with a reported power conversion efficiency of 20.0%.

SCADA vendor for massive solar+storage project

Trimark Associates said it was selected to provide the SCADA portion of the 1,118 MW, 2,165 MWh Edwards & Sanborn solar-plus-storage project being built by Terra-Gen in Kern County, California. As a subcontractor, Trimark’s scope of work includes meteorological stations, networking equipment, and a dynamic loss compensation (DLC) system to address power purchase agreement requirements. Trimark also will provide metering, including revenue meters. Site construction began in February and is expected to be completed in late 2022.

JinkoSolar signs glass supply deal

JinkoSolar Holding Co. said that it signed a solar glass procurement contract with Flat Glass Group Co., securing around 338 million square meters of rolled glass to support production of 59 GW of solar modules for three years from 2021 to 2023.

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