Wacker, SCHOTT invest €370m in German solar jv

02 August 2007 14:12  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Wacker Chemie and glass maker SCHOTT plan to invest €370m ($507m) in a 50:50 joint venture that will make silicon wafers for solar applications in Germany, the companies said on Thursday.

 

The wafers would be made at Jena and Alzenau, creating over 700 new jobs.

 

The companies would expand existing production at those sites as well as set up new facilities.

 

Capacity would be expanded in stages, reaching about one gigawatt/year by 2012, making the joint venture one of the world’s five largest solar-wafer manufacturers.

 

The facilities would make multi-crystalline silicon ingots and wafers, the starting material for solar cells.

 

Wacker, for its part, described the joint venture as a “forward integration.”

 

The company is the world's second-largest supplier of polysilicon, an important raw material for solar wafers, and would supply the joint venture.

 

In June, Wacker announced a €400m expansion to triple polysilicon production at its site in Burghausen, Germany.

 

($1 = €0.73)

By: Stefan Baumgarten
+1 713 525 2653

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