Alisa Papadimitriou, Luxen Solar – Top Equipment for Solar Projects Arrives to Serbia and Region

Since the end of last year, there is another player in the solar industry of Serbia, the manufacturer of solar panels Luxen Solar. The company founded in Spain in 2005 now has around 500 employees worldwide. It has reached a production capacity of 3 GW with an aim to increase the capacities to 10 GW by 2026.

In her interview with the eKapija portal, the business development director for Europe and Luxen Solar, Alisa Papadimitriou, says that the main markets for Luxen Solar are China and Europe, but that they also place products in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Australia. As she points out, they offer a remarkable product featuring the latest technology, with long guarantees and characteristics better than the standards in the market.

Papadimitriou also reveals how she sees the development of solar energy in Serbia and the company’s plans in our country.

– Luxen Solar was founded in Spain in 2005, and the name comes from the word “lux”, which means light, and the word “energy” – symbolizing energy from sunlight. We opened our own factory in 2011, which has been automated since 2015. From this year, we are also building another production facility for the future revolutionary technologies. The company is characterized by a gradual stable growth. Today, it has around 500 employees worldwide and is oriented toward innovative technology exclusively. We have been in Serbia since Q4 2023.

You produce solar panels for residential, industrial and commercial facilities and use on the ground. What sets apart Luxen Solar panels?

– Luxen produces panels for roofs, but also for the ground, of 420 to 700 Wp, monofacial and bifacial. To our clients, we offer always the latest, but also cost-effective, technology, because we follow trends and are financially stable to enough to be able to enable our clients, through investing in new, automated production lines, to install the most efficient panels in the projects which secure a quick return on the investment and product duration over several decades with a greater resilience of the panels to the weather conditions, such as snow, wind, hail, than the standard ones.

How far have you progressed in achieving your goal to have a production of 10 GW by 2026?

– Last year, Luxen installed another new robotized production line for the TOPCon technology run by artificial intelligence and reached a production capacity of 3 GW and bought land for the construction of another factory for increasing the capacities to 10 GW by 2026. The construction is going as planned.

In which markets do you operate? Are there differences in client demands relative to the markets they come from?

– Our main markets are China and Europe, but we also place products in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Australia. Yes, each market is its own story. Clients have different needs when it comes to the power of the panels, the sizes and the appearance. For example, some markets want full black panels exclusively, whereas to others it’s not important at all. What’s common to all these markets, as well as all clients, is to have as their partner a producer that is transparent, always available and ready to make an effort to help the client in the best way possible and to stick to the agreement above all. That is precisely why clients are loyal to us, because they know they can trust us. They also know that they will be informed about everything on time, with an honest relationship and the readiness to find a solution to everything.

What are the latest trends in the solar panel industry?

– The solar panel technology has been developing at an incredible speed in the past few years. There are currently various technologies, TOPCon, HJT, IBC etc, which have been developed in order to get products which will last longer, be more efficient and secure a quicker return on investments and a quicker progress toward the joint goal – a world of clean energy. However, not all the technologies are cost-effective yet, because they are not developed enough for mass production and mass use to make sense and some technologies, in addition to the high price, also have characteristics compared to other technologies which were identified as flaws during research and implementation and there are still efforts to remove them. For example, HJT is a technology that is revolutionary and it already exists, but it is more expensive and far more sensitive to humidity than the PERC technology used so far or the new TOPCon one, and to the forming of the so-called hot spots.

Currently the most cost-effective technology in every sense is TOPCon. Compared to the PERC technology used so far, it has plenty of advantages, such as achieving a greater panel power (PERC cells peaked at, say, 415 Wp for household roofs, TOPCon is already at 440 Wp for the same panel dimensions), the degradation is far lower, only 1% in the first year, unlike PERC, which was at 2-2.5%, and during a 30-year period amounts to 0.4% on an annual level, unlike the PERC technology, which was at 0.50-0.55%. TOPCon also has a greater production in the conditions of weak light at the beginning and end of a day and the guarantees for the panels are longer.

Luxen carefully follows the development of all the innovations and has its own R&D team which has been developing technologies for years. But our range of products feature only the products and technologies that have been checked in terms of providing the customer with the best mix of cost-effectiveness relative to the price and combined with the advantages they provide. We follow other revolutionary technologies, but they will only be available when they are truly ready to offer big advantages to clients and when the identified flaws are addressed, so that they can secure the durability of the product and its quality long-term work.

In the EU, solar energy reached the record-breaking 56 GW in 2023. How do you see the development of solar energy in Serbia?

– Serbia has big plans and plenty has been done in a short amount of time when it comes to the regulations and financial support through various programs so that the cost-effectiveness of the installation of solar power plants would be secured for the customers. There are major efforts toward enabling a quicker investment and shortening the time needed to obtain all the permits. I believe that we are a hard-working and smart nation, that we have very well-educated people full of technical knowledge and that we will manage to achieve the set goals. Of course, we should learn from out neighbors, analyze how they implement the goals in the field of renewable energy sources, because, although we had a late start, we have the advantage of being able to gather the knowledge from other countries as they achieve their goals, to see what they have done well, and where they have made mistakes, and form our method, based on the best examples.

What are the company’s plans in Serbia?

– Luxen presented itself in Serbia at the end of last year with the personal presence of the company’s owner and president, who visited Belgrade at the end of last year and met the main actors in the solar industry of Serbia. He plans to visit again in March, and I am in Belgrade nearly every month, whereby we enable to our clients direct access to the company’s top management, which is otherwise not the case with panel manufacturers, which usually have only local distributors, or maybe one sales person that can be contacted. With this approach, we want to show that the local market and the region are important to us and that we are there to help and achieve long-term cooperations based on trust and transparency. We are here, we are available, we offer a remarkable product with the latest technology, with top-quality long guarantees, characteristics better than the standard ones in the market (increased resilience to snow and wind – the standard is 5200 Pa and 2400 Pa, and our products have a resilience of 6200 Pa and 4200 Pa, as well as a greater resilience to hail than the standard one).

We want to help Serbia and the region realize solar projects by using top-quality equipment which will enable for investors a quick shift to clean energy and profitable investments. With local partners in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro, which have extraordinary engineers, practical knowledge and a high degree of responsibility in building solar power plants, we offer a turnkey solution to investors, with the best conditions possible. For more information, investors can write at [email protected]. Depending on the needs and desires of each investor, we offer solutions tailor-made to the project.

Luxen offers much more than solar panels. It offers a peace of mind with a cost-effective investment.

Luxen Solar

Luxen Solar

Alisa Papadimitriou

solar panels

solar industry

solar energy

TOPCon

clean energy