Awards for Freiberg Researcher and Combined Power Plant
SolarWorld AG is strengthening its activities in France, one of the large European growth markets for solar power applications. Right now France is in fourth place in the European league of newly installed solar output capacities. SolarWorld relies on proximity to customers in its growth markets and therefore established a liaison office in Grenoble with immediate effect, which provides country-wide technical training as well as consultation for wholesalers and installers.
“There is a Europe-wide demand for our quality products. We see quality, environmental and social standards as advantages of our production sites. While other companies are moving their production into low-wage countries we are deliberately expanding our sites in Europe and the USA. This is appreciated by our customers,” explains Frank H. Asbeck, Chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG. A current study by the Fraunhofer Institute on behalf of the VDI confirms the strategy. According to this study more and more companies with production activities in low-wage countries are encountering quality problems and thus a lack of acceptance on the part of customers.
In addition to investments in its production capacities SolarWorld relies on research close to production to secure the quality of the SolarWorld products. For outstanding research results the Director of Wafer Technology of the Freiberg SolarWorld Innovations GmbH, Dr. Bernhard Freudenberg, received the Innovation Award for Microelectronics 2009. The prize is awarded annually by the “Förderkreis für die Mikroelektronik e.V.”. Together with Dr. Jochen Friedrich of Fraunhofer IISB Dr. Freudenberg improved the crystallization process of the silicon melt. In this way the group can increase the yield of silicon crystals, reduce production costs and achieve competitiveness of solar power more quickly.
Solar energy will play a significant role in the future energy mix. This is born out by the “Combined Renewable Energy Power Plant“, which has just received the German Climate Protection Award 2009. Milan Nitzschke, formerly project manager of the combined cycle power station and today Head of Sustainable Corporate Development, Marketing and Communication of SolarWorld AG: “The industrial partners SolarWorld AG, Enercon GmbH and Schmack Biogas AG have proven with this project that anywhere in Germany and at any time a full supply of electricity from renewable energy sources that meets the current demand is possible with today’s technology”. The award of “Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V.” for the scientific development and support of the concept of the „Combined Renewable Energy Power Plant“ went to the Kassel researcher Dr. Kurt Rohrig.
About SolarWorld AG
The SolarWorld AG group of companies (ISIN: DE0005108401) is a world leader in high-quality solar power technology. The company is exclusively dedicated to its core business of photovoltaic power generation and combines all activities of the solar industry from silicon as the raw material to turn-key solar power systems including recycling. SolarWorld is represented in all the world’s solar growth markets and predominantly produces in Germany and the USA. Its largest sites are located in Freiberg, Saxony, and Hillsboro, USA. The central group office is in Bonn. Worldwide sales of solar modules are secured by five sales offices in Germany, Spain, USA, South Africa and Singapore. The central element of the business in addition to the sale of turn-key solar systems and solar modules to the trade is the distribution of solar silicon wafers to the international solar cell industry. Apart from grid-coupled (on-grid) products, the SolarWorld Group sells off-grid solar power solutions. Under the name Solar2World the Group takes its ethical commitment to fair development also to emerging economies and developing countries, promoting in particular off-grid solar power solutions exemplary of sustainable economic development.
Sustainability is an integral element of SolarWorld’s corporate strategy. The corporate management is committed to sustainable, economically, ecologically and socially compatible growth. SolarWorld AG employs more than 2,700 people worldwide. The company is listed at the stock market, among others in the technology index TecDAX, in the ÖkoDAX, in the Dow Jones STOXX 600, in the international MSCI-Index and in the sustainability indices DAXglobal Alternative Energy and NAI.
Contact SolarWorld AG
Contact Press: Phone: +49 228/55920-400, E-Mail: press@solarworld.de
Contact Investor Relations: Phone: +49 228/55920-470, E-Mail: placement@solarworld.de
Fax: 0228/55920-9470
Internet: www.solarworld.de