Jun 7 2008
After commissioning a new wafer production facility at the so-called “Jena Site 2” in mid-April, WACKER SCHOTT Solar GmbH is continuing its production-site expansion. The company announced this today during a visit by Jena mayor Albrecht Schröter. The expansion measures focus on construction of a new crystal-growing facility. The extension is a key component of a €370 million investment program aimed at ensuring the announced production-capacity expansion to one gigawatt by 2012. The measure will create 150 new jobs at the site.
Construction work on the new crystal-growing facility is expected to commence in August. In the future, the facility will produce multicrystalline silicon ingots for the manufacture of solar wafers. Silicon wafers sliced from these ingots are the starting material for the production of high-quality solar cells.
As part of the expansion measures, existing so-called “Jena Site 1” production facilities will be renovated. Plans have been under development since 2005 to convert former calcium-fluoride facilities, which have been producing calcium-fluoride crystals for the semiconductor sector for years. Conversion is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The two managing directors of WACKER SCHOTT Solar, Axel Schmidt and Dr. Patrick Markschläger, called the construction of the new crystal-growing facility an important milestone in creating sufficient production capacities to meet strong demand for solar systems. “Site expansion and equipping of production facilities with state-of-the-art technology are key preconditions to produce high-quality wafers with a high degree of efficiency and low breakage rate,” said Markschläger.