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Camarillo/Bonn, August 8. SolarWorld AG today announced a doubling of cell-level thru-put at its main U.S. production facility in Camarillo, CA, starting in August and continuing through the end of the year.
“We are pleased to announce this expanded and firm availability of product through year’s end,” said Raju Yenamandra, Sales Manager America of SolarWorld California. The company is a 100-percent-subsidiary of SolarWorld AG, headquartered in Bonn, Germany. “We are committed to satisfying the product needs and requirements of our channel partners where and when it is needed starting now.”
Cell-level thru-put for the second half of 2006 is expected to be double that of the first half of the year. This is a significant increase given the industry-wide silicon shortage experienced over the past year and expected to continue well into 2007. Raju Yenamandra: “With our higher PTC ratings, sold under the brand name SunModules?, our products are in demand by customers to ensure maximum rebate payments in states such as California with its buy-down programs.”
SolarWorld Industries America owns the two U.S. production facilities formerly run by Shell Solar Industries – a silicon crystals-growing production site in Vancouver, WA, and the integrated production facility of solar silicon wafers, cells and modules in Camarillo, CA. It is the culmination of expansion efforts by SolarWorld started in 2005 with the establishment of a sales office and distribution center in southern California. “In the U.S., we are now the largest producer of solar technology”, states Frank Asbeck, Chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG.
About SolarWorld AG: The SolarWorld Group is among the three largest solar power companies in the world. The group is dedicated exclusively to the core business of solar energy combining all stages of the solar value chain from the raw material silicon to turn-key solar power plants. The company operates production facilities in Germany, Sweden and the USA. In the United States SolarWorld AG is the leading producer and provider of solar power technology. In addition sales offices operate in South Africa and Singapore completing the international alignment of the group. The responsibility of these offices includes the sale of rural solar power solutions that can make an important contribution to the sustainable economic development of the southern hemisphere. In Freiberg, Saxony, the group operates one of the world’s most advanced integrated solar production facilities where the SolarWorld Group turns solar grade silicon into high quality solar wafers, solar cells and solar modules. SolarWorld AG offers a broad and diverse range of products from modules for grid-coupled and grid-independent power generation all the way to a whole class of complete solar power systems for decentralized and centralized electricity generation. After the IPO at the end of 1999 the company developed within a few years from a solar trading house to a fully integrated solar technology group. The workforce has doubled itself from 684 employees by mid-year 2005 to more than 1,300 employees by mid-year 2006. SolarWorld AG is listed at the stock exchange in the technology index TecDAX and in the Dow Jones STOXX 600 as well as in the international MSCI index among others.
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