April 17, 2008

Jena, Germany: Wacker Schott Solar Commissions New Wafer Factory

WACKER SCHOTT Solar GmbH, a joint venture of Wacker Chemie AG (Munich) and SCHOTT Solar GmbH (Alzenau), yesterday officially commissioned a new factory in Jena for the production of silicon wafers for the solar industry.

After just six months’ construction, WACKER SCHOTT Solar has commenced wafer production, and plans to ramp up the factory’s annual capacity to 50 MW by fall 2008. This will increase WACKER SCHOTT Solar’s total annual capacity to 120 MW by year’s end. The two partners have invested €50 million in the new production plant, creating initially 140 new jobs at the Jena site.

Dr. Patrick Markschläger und Axel Schmidt, the two managing directors of WACKER SCHOTT Solar, were more than pleased about the new factory’s rapid completion: “We built it in record time and are now ramping up solarwafer production as planned. The new production plant’s commissioning is an important milestone for WACKER SCHOTT Solar’s business success. It is crucial to our ability to expand production capacity in line with the strong demand of our photovoltaics customers.”

The new Jena factory relies on time-tested technology that involves sawing individual wafers from multicrystalline silicon ingots. The two-story building has 7,560 m2 of floorspace for the manufacturing equipment – and it has one of the Thuringia region’s largest photovoltaic arrays installed on its roof. SCHOTT Solar manufactured and delivered the solar modules for this 82 kW array, which is operated by PV Meins KG (a partnership that includes many WACKER SCHOTT Solar employees).

Further details about: Wacker