The collaboration covers the planning and setup of PV production lines, technology roadmaps, equipment/material selection, prototyping and demonstration, certification/testing, and R&D on silicon wafers, cells, and modules, including process optimization.

In recent years Türkiye invested strongly in photovoltaics and now ranks first in Europe and fourth in the world in terms of PV module production capacity. To establish solar cell production as well, the government has allocated a support budget of 2.5 billion dollars as part of its High-Tech Investment Program HIT-30. Germany has a long tradition in photovoltaics but struggles to keep upstream manufacturing in the country.

“Applied research doesn’t work in a vacuum, we do need feedback loops from the PV industry to understand their challenges and needs”, said Prof. Andreas Bett, director of Fraunhofer ISE. “Fostering exchange with ODTÜ-GÜNAM and their learnings from the Turkish PV industry is very valuable to us.”

“For more than 40 years, Fraunhofer ISE has been researching and developing in all areas of solar energy, said Prof. Raşit Turan, Division Coordinator Silicon Photovoltaics at ODTÜ-GÜNAM – Center for Solar Energy Research and Applications. “First scientific collaborations have been very successful and we are looking forward to future joint research projects”.

The partners will conduct joint workshops and training sessions, develop pilot projects to de-risk new technologies before scaling up, seek joint national and international funding, conduct market research, and engage broader industry, academic, and government stakeholders.

An initial workshop on “Industrial Solar Cell and Module Production in Türkiye” will take place on October 30, 2025, at ODTÜ-GÜNAM in Ankara. Additionally, a joint GÜNAM/ISE workshop is being planned for March 2026.