by Graham Jesmer, news editor, RenewableEnergyWorld.com
July 15, 2008 – Sunwell, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMC Magnetics, announced that it has ordered another two end-to-end thin-film silicon production lines from Oerlikon Solar. One 60MW line will be delivered to the existing Sunwell production facility in Taiwan; the second line with 120MW capacity will be shipped to a new site currently under construction.
Both lines use Oerlikon Solar’s micromorph tandem cell technology that, according to the company, can raise module efficiency by up to 50%. CMC’s goal is to reach annual production output of 1GW as demand for thin-film solar panels continues its unprecedented growth.
“With this order CMC signals a long term strategy to continue with Oerlikon’s leading proprietary micromorph tandem cell technology. This sets the stage for an aggressive roadmap to increase efficiency allowing them to head towards grid parity in the near future,” said Jeannine Sargent, CEO of Oerlikon Solar.
In a related story, Oerlikon Solar announced an agreement with Flextronics at the opening of Intersolar North America (colocated with SEMICON West) in San Francisco, CA. Flextronics, an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, will support Oerlikon Solar’s scalability requirements for global production capacity, allowing the execution of more simultaneous projects in multiple geographies, including the company’s recently announced facility in Singapore.
“The facility in Singapore and the partnership with Flextronics will extend our global presence in the rapidly growing solar market. This will extend our lead in terms of production capability, delivery time and cost,” said Uwe Krüger, CEO of Oerlikon group.
The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) is spearheading the development of what it hopes will be a world-class solar industry cluster. “This project is a significant boost to this growing sector, and shows how our existing strengths in manufacturing, particularly in precision engineering, have evolved to support exciting new areas,” said Ko Kheng Hwa, managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board. G.J.