Frank Asbeck has to go through once again. Shortly after the beginning of the year, he announced that the Bonn module manufacturer will exit the production of polycrystalline solar cells and modules. Therefore, all corresponding lines will be shut down this year. Instead, Solarworld will focus on the production and distribution of monocrystalline silicon modules using Perc technology.
Double-digit million investment
To this end, the Group is investing an average double-digit million figure by 2019 in the expansion of monoproduction. Accordingly, Solarworld will also concentrate all research activities on monocrystalline silicon technology in the future. This will involve developing processes that can be combined with the Perc technology. The reason: the performance increases as a result of the passivation and mirroring of the module rear side.
Solar cell production Freiberg closed
Solarworld is planning to concentrate the production processes on two sites in the future: That is why the small cell production in Freiberg in Saxony is closed and completely relocated to the Thuringian town of Arnstadt. Once again, module production is set up. In the future, all modules manufactured by Solarworld in Germany will come from Freiberg. As before, the wafers are manufactured from the crystallization plant, which is still located in Arnstadt.
Two gigawatts as a target
At the US site in Hillsboro, Solarworld continues to produce cells and modules. This results in synergies for the Group in production as well as sales and administration, and the reduction of the workforce. Overall, the company expects that by the end of 2019 the number of employees will drop by around 400 employees. "Our goal is to emerge stronger from the difficult market phase and to increase our module sales volume to about two gigawatts by 2019," predicts Frank Asbeck. This would represent an increase of 45 per cent compared to the previous year. In 2016 Solarworld sold solar modules with a total output of around 1.4 gigawatts of power. The prerequisite is that prices on the module market do not fall faster than assumed. But the Asians, especially the Chinese, do not sleep.
New performance classes
In the future, Solarworld will supply all solar modules with monocrystalline cells in performance classes with ten watt sorting, instead of most competitors in five watt increments. Already the focus on the monocell with Perc technology means more power per installed area. Since the nominal power only detects the power of the front side, the additional output that the bifaciale module generates over the rear side is added as an additional gain. The new performance classes represent an advantage in the competition, Solarworld hopes.
European solar module producers under pressure
"The producers of polymodules are currently under price pressure in Europe, because the Asian producers are very aggressive in the market," explains Bernhard Weilharter, Managing Director of CS Wismar. "The innovations on cell level are simply taking place in Asia. And the costs are then re-imported via scale effects in the Asian market, "Weilharter analyzes. Solarworld is now expanding completely from the segment of the polymodules. At present, the Bonn Group aggressively sells its poly stock. Not only Solarworld, but also other European companies have set high performance classes in the future, so the costs per watt will drop, he explains. (HS / HCN)
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