As a result, the group will have a total production capacity of 750 Megawatts worth of crystalline solar wafers in Germany by the end of the year. These in turn will be the blanks for the production of highly efficient crystalline solar cells. Buildings and infrastructure are already in place for the further expansion to 1,000 Megawatt. Thus, SolarWorld comes out fairly and squarely in favor of Germany as its high-tech production location.
The constantly progressing climate change is forcing us to make our energy supply more and more carbon free. My idea is that by 2050 the renewable energies will cover our energy needs almost completely, says Environment Minister Röttgen during the celebrations at Freibergs Industrial Estate East. A new market is emerging, in Germany and worldwide. It is only through permanent innovation and a brand strategy that the German manufacturers can stand their ground in this increasingly tougher international competition. SolarWorld has adopted a very good approach here and I am positive that SolarWorld AG will continue to write its success story.
On the whole, SolarWorld will be investing 350 million Euros in this new production facility. This makes it one of the largest investments in the photovoltaic business ever made in Germany, explains Frank H. Asbeck, chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG. At all our locations we are producing to high quality, environmental and social benchmarks setting standards worldwide. Freiberg as the very heart of our worldwide production will be further expanded and in doing so we will send out a signal against the industry trend of outsourcing production capacities to other countries.
SolarWorld is one of Germany´s Top 100 employers. In the trendence Absolventenbarometer 2010 published by the german business magazine Manager Magazin SolarWorld AG is among the most popular employers in 14th place with engineers.
With the new building SolarWorld will become even more efficient in production: The entire manufacturing process is fully automated and can boast low energy and water consumption. In addition, the waste heat from crystallization is used to heat the entire building. The roughly one Megawatt strong solar power plant on the industrial roof supplies clean electricity for about 1,000 people. At its largest production site worldwide in Freiberg SolarWorld employs 1,700 people which makes it the largest industrial employer in the rural district of Central Saxony.
