Start-Up Solar-Photovoltaic Energy Company Targets ‘Greener’ Growth

Medellin’s up-and-coming “Oriente” suburbs not only host the JMC International Airport and burgeoning residential/commercial developments, but also some unusually innovative companies — including a far-sighted solar photovoltaic (PV) start-up by the name of “50/50 Group.”

Initially created in 2021 by (now-retired) former Shell Manager Claudia Zuluaga as a “green” private foundation, “50/50” has since evolved into a dual-purpose (hence “50/50”) company — driven simultaneously by a focus on advanced solar PV power engineering, technology and installations, along with socially/environmentally responsible products.

One recent project by 50/50 Group — in the Medellin suburb of Envigado – features a pioneering, 300-kilowatt peak-power (kwp) solar plant employing IBC (Interdigitated Back Contact) technology (see photo, above).

In an interview here with Medellin Herald, Zuluaga cited her company’s strong know-how support from the Germany-based ISC Konztanz research institute, developer of an advanced solar PV technology.

Having evolved into a “niche” provider of solar PV engineering and installations for mainly commercial, industrial and residential applications here in Colombia, 50/50 Group now sees potential for Colombia to become a manufacturer of advanced solar PV panels – employing IBC (Interdigitated Back Contact) technology — initially on a relatively small scale, but with potentially large expansion horizons, Zuluaga explained.

Unlike the widely commercial (but less-advanced) “PERC” PV technology typically sold here in Colombia, the IBC cells help protect solar panels from the risks of damage from hail or excess temperatures, as all its contacts are at the rear of the cell. IBC also offers enhanced “mono-crystalline” efficiencies, relatively long life, slower degradation curves – and at “fair” prices.

It’s that latter issue of “fair” that is crucial to the continuing success and evolution — and even survival — of solar manufacturing both in Europe and internationally, as this offering is facing unfair competition from cheap Chinese solar panels manufactured via cruel forced-labor, she explained.

Ironically, many of these forced-labor products are classified by Bloomberg as “Tier 1.”

“The overproduction of these ‘Tier 1’ modules has left the world with an excess of photovoltaic modules at prices never seen before, flooding the markets in South America and Africa,” Zuluaga explained.

While such modules tout high quality and durability at attractive prices, today’s buyers often don’t know that the “Tier 1” classification “was created so that international manufacturers could support purely financial aspects, that is, bankability,” she added.

As a result of unfair cost competition and misunderstood quality ratings, Europe is now facing critical, devastating competition from unethical Chinese solar PV makers. To combat this threat, the European Parliament has just approved legislation that will ban such products. (That legislation is similar to what was already enacted in the U.S., she added.)

Colombia likewise could take similar action to encourage development of environmentally/socially responsible, advanced-tech solar PV manufacturing – and Zuluaga aims to spur that possibility by proposing the creation of a broad consortium including big national electric power producers/distributors, local industrial development agencies (such as Medellin’s ACI organization), academics, local governments and engineering-oriented universities (such as Medellin’s EIA University).

Colombia already offers relatively generous income-tax breaks for solar PV installations, and facilitates imports of solar modules and inverters.

For certain other materials needed to manufacture solar modules here, Colombia imposes a 33% tariff. But that tariff could be avoided by taking advantage of high-quality suppliers based in Europe, including Norway and Switzerland. (Colombia’s free-trade agreement with European countries aids this option, she added.)

Hence Colombia needs to take further steps for “greener” and “fairer” solar PV development and manufacturing, Zuluaga emphasized.

One South American country now taking aggressive steps is Brazil, with the government supporting a new, US$2 billion, vertically integrated solar PV manufacturing center in Bahia, she pointed-out.

Meanwhile, solar PV manufacturing is also emerging here in Colombia – although not an exact replica of the new, Brazil-style scheme.

For example: one version of IBC technology now available here offers a relatively favorable 0.25% year-on-year degradation rate, when compared to the 0.4% yearly degradation from PERC modules.

Likewise, an even-more-advanced IBC solar-PV-film technology –exceptionally light-weight, flexible, non-crystallizing over time — can be bent to form over curved surfaces, she showed. However, higher-cost issues with that novel PV-film technology are likely to delay applications here in Colombia, at least for now.

In any case, thanks to several novel IBC offerings, “50/50” group can offer solar PV modules even for vertical applications — such as building facades and fences, in different colors and layouts.

While cloudy days and shade from trees or nearby structures reduce average electric generation from solar PV installations, engineering-economic calculations reveal surprisingly quick pay-back periods for many such investments, as “50/50” engineers showed Medellin Herald with detailed cost-recovery charts.

Beyond 50/50 Group’s current focus on industrial, commercial and residential applications, the company also sees potential for government- and charitable-foundation subsidies to help support more solar PV deployment in remote agricultural areas as well as low-income areas that lack low-cost connections to Colombia’s national power grid, Zuluaga explained.

What’s more, if Colombia can get an advanced solar PV domestic manufacturing initiative going over the coming years – taking advantage of already-approved know-how from ISC Konztanz — then giant electric-power producers/distributors such as EPM, Celsia, Isagen and others potentially could buy lots of environmentally/socially responsible solar PV modules made here, at reasonable prices.

Bonus: such purchases could help these companies’ stated goals to expand diversified power generation, beyond Colombia’s mainly hydroelectric-powered grid. Such expansion also would spell new opportunities for the next-generation of engineers and tech developers here.

Colombia’s current hydro-based power system is vulnerable to occasional droughts, and beyond that, opportunities for building massive hydroelectric projects (such as EPM’s 2.4-gigawatt “Hidroituango” dam here in Antioquia) are diminishing.

What’s more, prices of conventional electric power in Colombia continue to rise every year – helping to make solar PV ever-more cost-attractive for the future, as 50/50 Group engineers showed Medellin Herald.

Meanwhile, distributed solar PV installations at factories, offices, commercial centers and residences can offer crucial back-up or even base-load power during Colombia’s occasional, localized power outages. Bonus: Such installations also offer the possibility to sell-back excess power to the grid — boosting the financial returns for solar PV owners and fortifying the national grid.

Yet another advantage for broader development of a “greener” power future here is Colombia’s ability to access tariff-free solar PV wafers from Norway — a member of the European Union, with which Colombia enjoys a free-trade agreement. Those wafers account-for 50% to 60% of the total cost of solar PV modules, Zuluaga explained.

Ultimately, these varied, ambitious, exciting goals for Colombian solar PV advancement not only will require adequate legislation, regulation, and cooperation between private and public sectors, but also much more investment – including foreign investment, Zuluaga concluded.