SolarWorld AG (SME.MU) announced its subsidiary, Deutsche Solar AG, will implement a self-developed, innovative and material-saving technology for the production of solar wafers from silicon together with two partners from the Netherlands.
Deutsche Solar AG, a leading manufacturer of solar silicon wafers, has established the RGS Development BV headquartered in the Netherlands in cooperation with the Netherlands research institute ECN (Energy Research Center of the Netherlands) and the investment company Sunergy Investco. The Joint Venture will build a pilot plant for the production of innovative and resource-saving silicon wafers by the beginning of the year 2007.
“In the Ribbon-Growth-on-Substrate (RGS) process we developed, the object is to gain the solar wafer as a film by applying the silicon on a carrier material thus avoiding the sophisticated cutting of silicon blocks which is the method of choice today,”, explains Prof. Dr. Peter Woditsch, CEO of Deutsche Solar AG, the new technology. “We expect that through the industrial use of the RGS technology the silicon demand can be reduced to 60%. In conjunction with the reduction of other production costs this may lead to significant cost savings in wafer production.”
The SolarWorld AG group is the only fully integrated solar power company in the world that is exclusively dedicated to solar energy. The SolarWorld Group is active at all levels of the solar industry’s value chain – from silicon as a raw material to turn-key solar power plants. The group operates production facilities in Freiberg and Sweden.
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