Prime Solar Pty Ltd, based in Australia, is setting up a silicon manufacturing facility in Germany with annual production capacity of 680 MW, at a cost of EUR 425 million.
The facility will operate 24 hours a day and offer over 1,000 full time employment opportunities.
The silicon wafers commonly known as silicon chips are the base components for the fabrication of solar cells and the wafers produced by Prime Solar will be used in the manufacture of silicon solar cells by Q-Cells of Germany.
“The first phase of the project of 50 MW per annum capacity will be set up at Thalheim, Germany’s “Solar Valley” approximately 50 km North of Leipzig in 2006-07 with a total project cost of EUR 36.5 million”, Mr John Carstairs, Chairman of Prime Solar said.
The German Government will provide up to 45% non-refundable grants. Negotiations are being held with the Commerzbank for debt funding and working capital.
Prime Solar recently entered into an agreement with Q-Cells to supply up to 100% of its wafer production for ten years. Q-Cells is the world’s second largest manufacturer of mono and multicrystalline solar cells. In 2005, Q-Cells produced 165.7 MW of solar cells. This represents an incredible 118% increase over the 75.9 MW solar cells manufactured the year before.
A total 81,000 m2 of land has been earmarked for Prime Solar at the Micro Technology Park at Thalheim just next to the manufacturing facility of Q-Cells. The land will be sufficient to accommodate all the expansion requirements of Prime Solar until 2014.
The factory will be ultra-modern and will use the latest wafers manufacturing equipment with as much automation as possible to reduce the breakage of the wafers. By the setting up of this facility at Thalheim, Prime Solar will become a leading manufacturer of silicon wafers in the world.
In order to secure a long-term polysilicon supply for its wafers manufacturing facility, Prime Solar is currently investigating a new process to manufacture solar grade silicon that will have 99.9999% purity and will use locally available metallurgical grade silicon. A new subsidiary company named Prime Solar Silicon will be created soon to undertake solar grade silicon manufacturing project in Western Australia.
Prime Solar has also started its first subsidiary company, Prime Solar Power Pty Ltd, to design, develop and own large-scale solar power generation projects. This new entity has commenced work to undertake a 2 MW solar photovoltaic fringe-of-the-grid project at Perenjori, 350 km North of Perth and another 10 MW Solar Park project at Perth.
“Prime Solar has negotiated 35% buy back of solar cells from Q-Cells for use in its solar photovoltaic modules manufacturing facility which will commence operations in 2008”, said Mr Harsh Grover, Chief Operating Officer of Prime Solar Pty Ltd.
Mr Joseph Alexander, CFO of Prime Solar said that “the company is currently raising capital for the first phase of 50 MW per annum wafers manufacturing project”.
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