[Sweden] Swedish solar energy company Midsummer has received an order for a solar roof from Pioneer Knitwears, one of the leading textile companies in Bangladesh. "It is a very interesting order as these companies make goods for global retail chains with stated goals of becoming climate neutral throughout the value chain," comments Midsummer's CEO Sven Lindström.
Midsummer will install a PV system consisting of nearly 500 square meters of solar panels at a textile factory in the city of Mymensingh, Bangladesh. This corresponds to 54.7 kWp with an estimated annual electricity production of approximately 60,000 kWh. The roof is built with the Midsummer BOLD model, which is specially developed for weak commercial roofs.
The customer is Pioneer Knitwears, one of Bangladesh's leading textile companies and the sister group of one of the country's largest industrial conglomerates, the Badsha Group of Industries. Pioneer Knitwears has one of the world's largest clothing retail chains as a customer, and this particular customer is financing the installation of the solar roof.
“It is a highly interesting and strategically important order as these producers manufacture goods for well-known global brands with stated goals of becoming climate neutral in the entire value chain. The end consumers in Europe and North America accept nothing but sustainably produced clothes and here Midsummer has an excellent opportunity to help the store chains and their suppliers become more environmentally friendly”, said Sven Lindström, CEO, Midsummer.
“Factories in these countries very rarely have roofs that can support the weight of silicon panels so our light thin film panels clearly have a competitive advantage here. But above all it is about our products' ultra-low climate footprint, only one tenth as large as traditional solar panels. That's what ultimately counts. We clearly see great potential in this huge market.”
Midsummer BOLD is specially developed for large and flat roofs of the type that usually sit on weaker industrial roofs. The solar panel is only two millimeters thin with a weight of three kilograms per square meter and can be installed on roofs that cannot withstand the weight of traditional silicon panels with glass, aluminum frame and ballast.
The textile industry in Bangladesh is one of the world's largest and there are many factories in need of clean and reliable energy. Bangladesh is very densely populated and the possibility of building ground-based solar parks is extremely limited. Roof-mounted solar panels thereby become an ideal solution for balancing the energy mix where natural gas is currently dominant.
