A new solar-wafer factory is commissioned

Wacker Schott Solar GmbH, a joint venture (JV) of Wacker Chemie AG (Munich; www.wacker.com) and SCHOTT Solar GmbH (Alzenau, Germany), today officially commissioned a new factory in Jena for the production of silicon wafers for the solar industry. After just six months’ construction, Wacker Schott Solar has commenced wafer production, and plans to ramp up the factory’s annual capacity to 50 MW by fall. This will increase Wacker Schott Solar’s total annual capacity to 120 MW by year’s end. The two partners have invested €50 million in the new production plant, creating initially 140 new jobs at the Jena site. The new Jena factory relies on time-tested technology that involves sawing individual wafers from multicrystalline silicon ingots. The two-story building has 7,560 m2 of floorspace for the manufacturing equipment – and it has one of the Thuringia region’s largest photovoltaic arrays installed on its roof. Schott Solar manufactured and delivered the solar modules for this 82 kW array, which is operated by PV Meins KG (a partnership that includes many Wacher Schott Solar employees). Wacher Schott Solar manufactures hyperpure, polycrystalline silicon wafers, the starting basis for solar cells.…