PV, not only a commodity. This is how Europe wins with China

“I am very committed to the creation of excellence centers with European competences in Europe.”

These are the words of Franco Traverso, the founder of the Mega Group holding which combines the newly created MegaCell Engineering, a company dedicated to development and innovation in green technologies, and the most noted MegaCell srl, which specializes in bifacial photovoltaic modules.

But this is not all, as the Italian entrepreneurial spirit, if present, is creative and even astonishing.

“MegaCell Engineering has set up an association with three enterprises: MegaCell Engineering which will produce the part of plant for power generation from an off-grid system or PV or PV/diesel sources, with a production path of the bifacial panel of MegaCell srl; a Belgian firm, Groupmec BVBA, specialized in production of a new housing structure with an industrialized method possible to be built on the spot; and the third, Swiss company, Ovóla AG, which specializes in home automation and the smart city technology.

Development and innovation related to the two-word concept of energy and water. Supplying these resources is getting more and more crucial and considered even critical in the near future.

It is thus not a coincidence that first innovations of MegaCell Engineering inclued precisely water desalination obtained through power recovered from photovoltaic panels. What is actually innovative in your desalination patent?

It is an off-grid power system. The patent will enable us to produce much more water in terms of kWh consumed, supplied by solar energy. This solution has aroused a wide interest in the Persian Gulf countries, an area which is particularly receptive to the opportunities of sweet water storage.

But what is the work model for such a multifaceted company which operates in different and interrelated areas?

We will export patents. Some firms are waiting for the bifacial cell in order to stand out in the market. The same applies to the solutions of MegaCell Engineering.

In future, I see possibilities of production and alliances with other producers, in order to come out of the swamp of commodity, where Chinese production ‘is still the king.’ I believe that it will soon be necessary to consider the cost of kWh of a plant and it will be necessary to sustain and produce a great deal of kWh during the panels’ life expectancy.