Aleo Solar is Granted Right to Distribute Thin Film Solar Modules
Developer of CIGS/Se thin film solar technology has been nominated for the World Clean Energy Award
Oldenburg and Brandenburg/Havel, Germany, 11 June 2007.
Source: Aleo Solar /press release
http://www.aleo-solar.de/index.php/page_id/49/language/en
Aleo solar has been granted the right to distribute up to 80 percent of Johanna Solar Technology’s CIGSSe thin film solar modules under the aleo brand name for at least five years.
Jakobus Smit, chairman of the Management Board of aleo solar AG, is very optimistic: “Innovative thin film solar technology has always been a key element of our strategy. We acquired an interest of 19 percent in Johanna Solar Technology early on in order to ensure our access to this thin film technology.
The current agreement takes us a decisive step forward in that it also gives us access to these innovative modules. Interest in these modules is extremely high in all of aleo solar’s markets. This underscores our innovative capabilities because the thin film solar modules are the second quality product in our portfolio that we plan to market in large quantities.”
Both companies will cooperate in the product launch. aleo solar will be responsible for product branding while Johanna Solar Technology will be responsible for technology branding. Jeroen Haberland, managing director of Johanna Solar Technology, describes the product’s cutting-edge technology as follows: “CIGSSe technology permits high levels of efficiency, thus ensuring that crystalline solar modules do not outperform our modules.”
Jakobus Smit adds: “These modules are a very good fit for aleo because our premium brand stands for both efficiency and excellent quality. Besides, thin film solar modules perform exceedingly well in hot environments as well, making them perfect for our internationalization strategy in Southern Europe.” aleo solar will introduce the new module’s prototype at the 22nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference in Milan, Italy, this September .
The inventor of the thin film technology, Professor Vivian Alberts, has been monitoring the construction of the production plant in Brandenburg/Havel, Germany, since the beginning of this year. He has now been nominated for one of the World Clean Energy Awards. Professor Alberts’s unique technology makes it possible to produce modules on the basis of CIGSSe – a combination of five elements (copper, indium, gallium, sulphur and selenium) – on an industrial scale.
The prize is being awarded for the first time this year. The jury is composed of high-caliber individuals, among them James Leape (Director General of the WWF International), Klaus Töpfer (former German Minister for the Environment and until 2006 Executive Director of the United Nations Environmental Programme), as well as Professor Ernst U. von Weizsäcker (author and, among other things, consultant to Kofi Annan, previously UN Secretary-General).
The Company
Aleo Solar AG, with sales operations in Oldenburg (Lower Saxony) and manufacturing facilities in Prenzlau (Brandenburg), was formed in September 2001 and produces solar modules using silicon cells. The facility in Prenzlau has an annual capacity of 90 megawatts, making it one of the largest production plants for solar modules. At the beginning of 2007, production also started in Santa María de Palautordera (Spain) with an annual capacity of 10 MW. The Company generated revenue of EUR 130 million in 2006 with around 320 staff. Since July 2006, aleo solar AG (DE000A0JM634) has been listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange’s Prime Standard. The Company’s acquisition of an equity interest in the Brandenburg-based technology enterprise Johanna Solar Technology GmbH has given it access to the promising future thin-film technology.