The company says the production facilities will enable it to provide extra capacity of 10,000 cells an hour, which works out at around 90 million solar cells a year. That is the equivalent of the total output required to supply all private households in the nearby city of Erfurt, it says, with its population of just over 200,000.
In addition to cells, the new plant also includes part of the wafer production. Thus, with the completion of this facility, the company says it has achieved the first step towards an integrated factory, which will unite all steps of the production process from silicon ingots to finished modules. Another important move towards an integrated cell and module production will be the completion of the module production facility next door over the coming months, explains Bosch.
We will thus cover the complete crystalline value creation chain down to the basic material of polysilicon. This not only guarantees optimum performance and quality from our products, but also enables us to leverage cost reduction and technology potential far more effectively, stated Holger von Hebel, chief executive at Bosch Solar Energy AG.
With this new plant, Bosch Solar Energy AG is looking to almost triple its nominal capacity to around 630 megawatts peak, which the company hopes will provide a major boost to its growth strategy. The expansion of its facilities are set to be completed next year when the research and development center and the new main administrative building are finished. The opening ceremony for the whole complex is scheduled to be held next summer.
The company says that it will have invested around 530 million in this location by 2012, which will help to create around 1,100 jobs.
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
Becky Beetz
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.