November 20, 2007 — STUTTGART, GERMANY, and RIETI, ITALY — M+W Zander Italia S.r.I. has received its first contract for a photovoltaic (PV) plant in Italy from its Customer SOLSONICA S.p.A., a new company ensued from EEMS S.p.A. (www.eems.it), a semiconductor company acting on a global scale. M+W Zander is design and build contractor for the facility systems of an existing semiconductor manufacturing facility, which is partially being retrofit into a PV cell manufacturing plant. The scope of work extends from the installation of gas and chemical distribution systems, done in cooperation with the JV partners Air Product Italia S.r.l. and Sapio Produzione Idrogeno e Ossigeno S.r.l. to the upgrade of the electrical system, the compressed air distribution, and the demineralized water distribution plant.
SOLSONICA S.p.A. plans to manufacture polycrystal silicon solar cells on a production area of 3,500 m2 and an additional 2,000 m2 of service area at the Rieti site, approx. 80 km from Rome. The manufacturing facilities of EEMS S.p.A. are also located in Rieti. Production start is planned by mid-2008, annual production during the first expansion stage is 30 MWp/year.
Subsequent production expansions are already included in the plans, which will increase the plant capacity up to 120 MWp/year. Tool move-in and start and commissioning are scheduled in January 2008.
“We are very happy for this breakthrough in Italy,” says M+W Zander Italia president Robert Gattereder. “Italy is a very important market for us.” In the Spring of 2007, the market research institute EuPD Research (www.eupd-research.com) presented a study on the photovoltaic market in Italy and forecasted an increase in peak capacity of 150 MWp.
About M+W Zander
With its subsidiary and holding companies, MWZ Beteiligungs GmbH offers worldwide integrated business solutions for company facilities, high-tech production plants, and industrial complexes. Operations focus on production of cleanroom technology and facility management for the electronic, solar, pharmaceutical, chemical, and energy industries and also research institutes. In the year 2006, the M+W Zander Group generated a turnover of approximately 1.76 billion euros with a 7,200-strong workforce worldwide. M+W Zander Italia S.r.l. is a company in the globally acting M+W Zander Group.
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