Solar is the industry to be in right now. With rapid growth in the sector SCHOTT Solar Plans To Expand U.S. Solar PV Production. The company sees growing demand for both its photovoltaic and concentrated solar power technologies. It announced today plans to build a new photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing facility that will increase its domestic PV production by more than 60 MW. SCHOTT Solar is currently evaluating locations for the new facility, which is scheduled to go online in 2009.
In addition to producing solar PV modules, the new facility will be designed to produce receivers for concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. This will provide SCHOTT with the ability to begin producing solar receivers at the facility if the market develops as the company anticipates. Anticipating future production increases of its solar power technologies, the new site will be built to support later expansion of both SCHOTT’s PV and its solar receiver lines as the US renewable energy market continues to grow.
“Demand for renewable energy in the United States is skyrocketing,” said Prof. Dr. Udo Ungeheuer, Chairman of the board of management of SCHOTT AG. “As one of the only companies that possess the manufacturing expertise needed to produce both PV modules and receivers for solar thermal power plants, SCHOTT Solar is uniquely positioned to expand U.S. production of these technologies, and thereby play a major part in helping the United States secure its ambitious renewable energy production goals.”
The new site will compliment SCHOTT Solar’s existing Billerica, Massachusetts facility, which has a capacity of 15 MW and produces the SCHOTT ASE-300 Watt PV module, one of the largest standard-sized modules available on the market today. In 2007 SCHOTT Solar’s total PV production capacity worldwide is 130 MW. For 2010 SCHOTT Solar aims on a global yearly production capacity of crystalline solar cells and modules of about 450 MW and an additional capacity of 100 MW in ASI thin film technology.
Recently, SCHOTT Solar announced a new joint venture with WACKER Chemie, a globally positioned chemical company headquartered in Munich, Germany, to produce multicrystalline silicon ingots and wafers, the starting material for solar cells. This partnership provides SCHOTT Solar with a reliable supply of polysilicon, for its tremendous planned growth.
SCHOTT Solar believes the potential market for solar thermal power in the United States is reaching a point where it makes sense for the company to develop plans for manufacturing capabilities for solar receivers in the U.S. The company has established itself as a leading manufacturer of solar thermal receivers used in parabolic trough solar thermal power plants, with one solar receiver production facility currently online in Mitterteich, Germany, and another facility under construction in Sevilla, Spain, scheduled to go online in March, 2008.
“The recent opening of the 64 MW Nevada Solar One solar thermal power plant demonstrates that large-scale solar thermal power is a renewable energy technology whose time has come.” said Dr. Gerrit Sames, Vice President Solar Thermal for SCHOTT.”We expect that the reliability and cost-effectiveness of parabolic trough solar thermal power plants, along with the Southwestern United States’ vast solar resources, will help make solar thermal power one of the United States’ leading sources of renewable energy by 2025.”