German Solar firm Q-Cell agrees on $150 million US deal
LONDON — Q-Cells AG, a maker of crystalline silicon solar cells, has signed a five-year supply deal with PowerLight Corp. valued at $150 million.
Source: EETimes
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193301556
Q-Cells (Thalheim, Germany) has agreed to provide PowerLight (Berkeley, Calif.) with $150 million worth of solar cells and granted PowerLight an option to increase that volume by an additional $60 million.
The move helps Q-Cells expand its presence in the U.S. market.
Founded in 1999, Q-Cells employs 900 people and expects to produce polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon cells with a total output of 255 MWp in 2006 and is in the process of increasing production capacity.
“This deal will showcase the tremendous results that will come from combining PowerLights proven approach to design, development and deployment of solar power systems with Q-Cells’ high-performance photovoltaic technology,” said Anton Milner, chief executive officer and founder of Q-Cells, in a statement issued by PowerLight.
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Earlier (July 2006) news report
Q-Cells invests $9 million in Flexcell, a swiss flexible startup company
EE Times Europe 3 July 2006
http://www.eetimes.eu/germany/190200061
LONDON — Solar energy products supplier Q-Cells AG, which is claimed to be the second biggest manufacturer of mono- and polycrystalline silicon solar cells in the world, has agreed to invest €7 million (about $9.0 million) in Swiss company VHF Technologies SA, which trades as Flexcell.
Flexcell (Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland) said it wants to use the money to industrialize a new photovoltaic technology. Q-Cells AG (Thalheim, Germany), with an annual production capacity of 280-Megawatts, has invested in Flexcell as an opportunity in the field of flexible thin-film technologies.
Q-Cells’ investment in Flexcell is earmarked to build an industrial production line in Yverdon with an annual production capacity of 2-megawatts. The increase in the production capacity will enable the company to respond to requests for photovoltaic building components.