An industrial partnership between Pufin Group and Eurener Group expects to fill the gap left by Chinese rivals impacted by anti-dumping duties within the EU and capitalise on the expected increase in demand for solar cells and modules made within Europe.

The Pufin Group, which owns cell producer, Solland Solar, and module manufacturers EliFrance and El.Ital, will increase capacity alongside Eurener Group which owns module assembly plants in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

The deal will also see more PV modules branded under the Eurener name in both Europe and the US.

Eurener noted that its PV modules had already be accredited with the 5% feed-in tariff increase due to European content compliance in France and the 10% boost to FiTs in Italy. The use of European-made solar cells will provide an additional 5% in France.

The company also said that it employed around 150 people in Spain and that its first assembly plant was located in Bigastro (Alicante, Spain), while in December 2010 it opened its second automated production facility in the town of Torres Vedras (Portugal), however nameplate capacities are believed to have been below 100MW.

In June last year, Solland Solar noted that it had approximately 70 staff engaged in cell manufacturing at its plant in Holland, which had an annual capacity of 130MW, before being acquired from insolvency proceedings.