At "PV America" trade show, SolarWorld will announce product innovation, issue final invitation for submissions in research contest

Hillsboro, Ore., June 5 – The SolarWorld group, the largest North American manufacturer of photovoltaic technology, will showcase a new, 220/230-watt Sunmodule® and make a final call for research submissions in the company's Junior Einstein Award at the PV America trade show in Philadelphia from June 8 to 10.

The SW 220/230 mono Sunmodule® will represent one of the best values in the solar industry. The product will originate from SolarWorld's three factories on the West Coast. Those include the biggest U.S. solar-technology plant in Hillsboro, which the company opened in October 2008.

Fully automated manufacturing produces consistently high-quality modules. Fabricated from monocrystalline silicon, the 60-cell module will measure about 66 inches by 39 inches and weigh 48.5 pounds. The new Sunmodule® will offer a 3 percent power tolerance and SolarWorld's usual 25-year warranty.

Also timed with the Philadelphia trade show, the company will remind prospective contestants in SolarWorld's annual Einstein Awards contest that a June 30 submission deadline approaches. The awards will recognize the most outstanding PV research worldwide that was completed in the year ending by the submission deadline.

The award is named after Albert Einstein, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his revolutionary explanation of the photoelectric effect. SolarWorld has presented the award since 2005. The winner, chosen by the board of SolarWorld, receives 10,000 euro; the winner of the Junior Einstein Award, selected based on research submissions, receives 5,000 euro. An awards ceremony this year will take place Sept. 21 in Hamburg, Germany.

The winner of a SolarWorld Senior Einstein Award for 2008 was Professor Antonio Luque Lopez of the Institute for Solar Energy at Madrid University. The winner of a Junior Einstein Award was Bram Hoex, a physicist at the Technical University of Eindhoven in Holland.

"Just as we continuously reinvent our products and therefore manufacturing processes, we also continue to encourage technological advances outside the industry itself," said Boris Klebensberger, president of SolarWorld in the Americas.

Klebensberger will serve on a June 10 discussion panel titled "Keeping PV Green" in PV America's concurrent conference. Both the conference and trade show take place in the Pennsylvania Convention Center. SolarWorld's trade show booth is No. 1409.

SolarWorld is a leader in the sustainable development of photovoltaic technology, the company sparked the European recycling consortium and it operates the only conventional PV recycling site in Europe. The company offers full recycling of its modules in the United States and Europe alike.

For details on submitting research to the Einstein Awards, go to www.einstein-award.com.

About SolarWorld (www.solarworld-usa.com)

SolarWorld (ISIN: DE0005108401) is a worldwide leader in offering brand-name, high quality, crystalline solar-power technology. Its strength is its fully integrated solar production. From silicon as the raw material through wafers, cells and modules all the way to turn-key solar systems of all sizes, the group combines all stages of the solar value chain. The central business activity is selling quality modules into the installation and distribution trades and crystalline wafers to the international solar cell industry. Group headquarters are located in Bonn, Germany. The group’s largest production facilities operate in Freiberg, Germany, and Hillsboro in the U.S. state of Oregon. Sustainability is the basis of the group strategy. Under the name Solar2World, the group supports care projects using off-grid solar-power solutions in developing countries, exemplifying sustainable economic development. Worldwide, SolarWorld employs more than 3,300 people. SolarWorld AG has been quoted on the stock exchange since 1999 and today is listed on, among others, the TecDAX and ÖkoDAX as well as in the sustainability index NAI.

Media Contact:

Devon Cichoski
Media relations manager
SolarWorld Americas
4650 Adohr Lane
Camarillo, CA 93012
Mobile: 805-388-6388
Office: 805-377-2905
devon.cichoski(at)solarworld-usa.com