SolarWorld AG (Berlin: SWV.BE), based in Germany, announced it has established new new subsidiaries in Spain and the U.S. as entry points to the solar markets there.
The subsidiaries, SolarWorld Iberica s.l., will be located in Madrid, Spain, and SolarWorld California Inc. will be based in San Diego.
“Spain is one of the markets with the most vigorous growth in Europe”, says Faried Muscati. “Already in the course of the current year we have been able to close business deals here that have made us one of the leading foreign solar providers. With our new subsidiary in Madrid we will further strengthen this position.”
CEO Frank Asbeck told Reuters SolarWorld plans to double its exports to 60% of sales by 2008, and that the two new subsidiaries would be profitable immediately. The company plans to establish a new unit in China or one of Asia’s so-called tiger economies in the first half next year.
In the past few weeks, the Spanish government approved new objectives for the further development of renewable energy. Solar capacity is to be increased over the next few years by a factor of 10 from 40 MW at the end of 2004 to 400 MW.
Vigorous market growth is also expected in the US. The Energy Bill provides for 30% tax breaks on the purchase of solar power systems.
SolarWorld’s share price has jumped 21-fold since late 2003, benefiting from Germany’s aggressive renewable energy feed-in laws. The laws subsidise the use of solar power, driving up demand for equipment.
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