The global PV market is currently in a difficult position, with discussions about further solar incentive cuts in key European markets leading to heightened uncertainty.
The first quarter of 2011 has been extremely weak for many German companies. Now German newspaper Handelsblatt has reported that SolarWorld plans to compete for a major order from Siemens against Chinese competitor Suntech Power Holdings.
The newspaper has learned from industry sources that SolarWorld is planning to compete for the delivery of several hundred megawatts modules by offering more competitive prices, even though Suntech closed a framework contract with Siemens at the beginning of the year. ?
SolarWorld's CEO Frank Asbeck would only confirm that his company has reached an agreement with Siemens.
Suntech reacted calmly to the report. "If SolarWorld also comes out with a proposal for the project, that does not affect our current framework contract with Siemens," Bjorn Emde, Suntech's spokesperson, commented. "Rather, we welcome the fact that SolarWorld is initiating a healthy level of competition at this level. This is good for the market and for customers in Europe."
Siemens plans to implement 50 to 100 megawatts of solar projects in total this year, according to the report. Next year, this will rise to about one gigawatt. The required quantities of solar modules for the projects were announced by Siemens in blocks. The prices are relevant for Siemens decision, reports Handelsblatt.
In other news, Suntech has introduced a new 245 watt module – a mono-crystalline 60 cell module (STP245S-20/Wd) – specifically designed for residential and small commercial rooftop applications, to the European market.
Popular content
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Share
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.