Prime Solar to set up 7,000 Tons Polysilicon and 765 MW Wafers Manufacturing Facilities in Germany
16 January 2007
source: Prime Solar PRESS RELEASE
http://www.primesolar.com.au/
Prime Solar Pty Ltd will set up a polysilicon manufacturing facility at Bitterfeld in Germany to produce 7,000 Metric Tons of polysilicon per annum based on the conventional Siemens Technology. Revealing the details of the project Dr Dilawar Singh, Managing Director and CEO said that “the polysilicon project will be completed in two Stages of 3,500 Metric Tons each and the first Stage will commence production in the second half of 2008. It will be a captive project producing polysilicon feedstock for Prime Solar’s wafers manufacturing facility of 765 MW per annum capacity to be set up at Thalheim, Germany.” The wafers
commonly known as silicon chips are the base components for the fabrication of solar cells and the wafers produced by Prime Solar will be used in the manufacture of silicon solar cells by a number of reputable solar cells manufacturers.
Prime Solar has recently invited Expressions of Interest for the supply of the wafers under a 10-year wafers supply contract and received a good response from various reputable solar cells manufacturers from Europe and Asia. Dr Singh stated that “Prime Solar made an announcement in April 2006 to set up a wafers manufacturing facility at Thalheim, however, Prime Solar was unable to secure polysilicon feedstock from any of the current seven manufacturers of polysilicon. Therefore, Prime Solar had left with no choice except to set up its own polysilicon manufacturing facility for the captive use. Although, it was a hard decision to make, as there was a big investment involved, the board of Prime Solar took an appropriate and timely decision to set up the both polysilicon and the wafers manufacturing facilities”.
The Stage I of 380 MW per annum of the wafers factory is expected to be completed in July 2008. The Stage II of 385 MW per annum will be completed in 2009 aggregating the total wafers production to 765 MW per annum. The crystalline solar cells technology enjoys world dominance as 93.5% of the global solar cells production in 2005 was manufactured using mono and multicrystalline silicon wafers. Although, several investors have approached the company for investing in the high-tech polysilicon and the wafers projects, Prime Solar is currently negotiating a large equityinvestment with two well known investment groups, one in Australia and another in France. Dr Dilawar Singh is hopeful to sign the shareholding agreement with one of these investors within months.