Solar Cells Info

1 March 2007
Source: SolarWorld group press release
http://www.dgap.de/link.php?von=19970101&typ=adhoc&isin=DE0005108401&sprache=en&a=10&v=en&id=70067

In Hillsboro in the US federal state of Oregon SolarWorld AG is beginning
to establish an integrated solar silicon wafer and solar cell production
which will reach a capacity of 500 MW until the year  2009 thus at the same
time building the largest solar factory on the American continent. At a
price of only 30 million EUR the solar technology group succeeded in taking
over the silicon wafer production of the Japanese Komatsu Group which had
invested some 600 million EUR at the Hillsboro location – in the immediate
vicinity of the world’s largest factory of the chip manufacturer Intel –
but had never gone into production with the new facility due to a weak
demand situation in the chip industry. The SolarWorld Group will further
develop the new site with an investment of 300 million EUR. The federal
state of Oregon will support these investments with funds from its
Anti-Global-Warming-Program. Following this acquisition the SolarWorld
Group will shift its solar crystallization activities from Vancouver to
Hillsboro and already start up production in the summer of 2007. In the
first stage of the expansion capacities will be enhanced to 100 MW. At the
same time the group will double the capacities of its specialized solar
module factory at the Camarillo/California production site to 100 MW.
SolarWorld production to exceed Gigawatt mark globally by 2010

‘The new investment in Oregon constitutes an exceptional opportunity’,
explains Dipl.-Ing. Frank H. Asbeck, Chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG.
‘The take-over of such a high-tech production facility at a price of only
30 million EUR is an excellent deal’. With the new US production capacities
the SolarWorld Group is substantially expanding its position as the leading
provider and producer of solar power technology in the strongly growing US
solar market. Together with the expansion of the silicon wafer production
at Freiberg/Saxony to also 500 MW the group will have a total global
production in excess of one Gigawatt (1,000 Megawatt). ‘Now that we will
soon have exceeded the threshold of 1,000 staff in Freiberg the group will
also create a large number of new jobs at Hillsboro’, announces Dipl.-Ing.
Frank H. Asbeck, Chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG.

Claim of technology leadership
In the new wafer and cell factory the group will produce highly efficient,
mono-crystalline solar silicon products thus expanding its technological
spectrum. The products from the integrated production in Freiberg are
primarily based on high efficiency multi-crystalline silicon. ‘The new US
production will be designed in line with the latest results of our ongoing
inter-group research work’, explains Dipl.-Ing. Boris Klebensberger who is
responsible for the US activities of the group as Board Member in charge of
operations (COO) of SolarWorld AG. ‘In this process the technological
know-how from the mono-crystalline technology taken over from the former
Shell companies will be employed for the first time. With our new US
production we are thus consistently living up to our claim of being the
technology leader in this market’.

About SolarWorld AG: The SolarWorld Group is among the top trio of the
solar power industry worldwide. The group is dedicated exclusively to the
core business of solar energy, combining all stages of the solar value
chain, from the raw material silicon to turn-key solar power plants. The
company operates production facilities in Germany, Sweden and the USA.
Among the currently most important sales markets are Germany, the United
States and in the rest of Europe especially Spain. In addition, sales
offices operate in South Africa and Singapore, completing the international
alignment of the group. The responsibilities of these offices include the
sale of rural solar power solutions that can make an important contribution
to the fair and sustainable economic development of the southern
hemisphere.
In Freiberg, Saxony, the group operates one of the world’s most advanced
integrated solar production facilities where the SolarWorld Group turns
solar grade silicon into high quality solar wafers, solar cells and solar
modules. SolarWorld AG offers a broad and diverse range of products from
modules for grid-coupled and grid-independent power generation all the way
to a whole class of complete solar power systems for decentralized and
centralized electricity generation. After the IPO at the end of 1999, the
company developed within a few years to a fully integrated solar technology
group, increasing its workforce to more than 1,350 employees by the
beginning of 2007. SolarWorld AG is listed at the stock exchange in the
technology index TecDAX, in the Dow Jones STOXX 600 as well as the
international MSCI index and the sustainability index NAI.

Note to editors: Photos of the largest US solar factory can be downloaded
from the Internet: http://www.solarworld.de/oregon