FRANKFURT - Solar energy company SolarWorld is on track to meet its target to raise profits and sales 40 percent this year following a good first quarter, its finance head said on Monday.
"We will definitely not disappoint the capital market with our first-quarter figures," Philipp Koecke told Reuters.
Demand for solar equipment is huge and the company is sold out for 2005 and almost sold out for 2006, Koecke said.
He added that silicon supply for 2005 and 2006 was almost secured. The company said earlier on Monday it had agreed a 10-year contract with Wacker GmbH for the silicon maker to supply it with solar-grade silicon from 2007 to 2017.
Shares of SolarWorld, which makes solar wafers, cells and panels, were 1.4 percent higher at 98.09 euros at 1024 GMT, outperforming a 0.3 percent drop in the TecDax index.
SolarWorld has benefited from booming demand for solar energy that helped it double sales to almost 200 million euros ($261 million) last year and achieve a net profit of 18.1 million euros that beat its own forecasts.
The solar market currently supplies a fraction of 1 percent of the world's energy needs and is worth an estimated $7 billion annually. The industry may increase that proportion to 8 percent by 2030, according to the European Renewable Energy Council.
Given generous subsidies from some governments -- notably Japan and Germany, the world's two biggest producers of solar power -- demand has soared for the panels that harness energy from the sun to provide electricity without emitting carbon.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
