The office will be headed by Gerhard Travnicek, who joined the company in June 2008 to develop new markets in Eastern Europe. After creating first partnerships from its German headquarters the local office is the next step to better serve installation partners in the Czech market.
The result obtained with the triple-junction compound solar cell means that efficiency has been boosted from the previous value of 31.5 % to 35.8 %. The compound solar cell utilizes photo-absorption layers made from compounds consisting of two or more elements such as indium and gallium.
In early December, the company announced that it had started the site selection process and initiated the approval procedures. Canadian Solar said it had previously filed a considerable number of applications for feed-in tariff payments with the supply authority of Ontario and additionally raised many customers' interest in solar installations "made in Ontario".
According to the French press, the high support payments have given rise to a speculation bubble. At present, almost 3,000 applications for the payments are submitted in France every day. Last summer, by way of contrast, only 5,000 applications were filed every month.
The current annual production volume is 400 MW.
The cell is made of copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS). The previous record was held for 16 years by the US research institute NREL. ZSW underlined that this achievement was possible through close cooperation with partners from the University of Stuttgart, the ZSW and the company Würth Solar.
A further expansion to 1,000 MW is possible, the company says: the buildings and the infrastructure are already in place. In a press release, Solarworld emphasizes that the expansion in Freiberg shows the company's clear commitment to Germany as a production location. According to the company, the investment volume amounts to € 350 million.
Photovoltaic Feed