| Solar cell maker expands
U.S. manufacturing base
Colin Holland
EE Times
(01/21/2009 10:47 AM EST)
HILLSBORO, Ore. — SolarWorld AG, one of the
oldest makers of photovoltaic cells, said it is continuing to expand its
U.S. manufacturing operations despite the global economic recession.
The German company's fourth quarter results are not in yet, but the company
claims it grew by over 51 percent in the first nine months of 2008 while
continuing to expand its U.S. manufacturing capacity. SolarWorld recently
opened a new facility in Hillsboro, Ore., with nearly a 500,000 square feet
of semiconductor-grade manufacturing areas, making SolarWorld the biggest
U.S. manufacture of photovoltaic cells.
"We think we can [manufacture] about a half a gigawatt out of this [new]
facility" a year, said Robert Belsner, managing director at SolarWorld in
Oregon. "It depends on the technology [and] exactly what kind of
efficiencies we are getting from the cells."
SolarWorld said it expects to more than
triple in size by 2017 from $20 billion in 2007. New investment in clean
energy sources exceeded $150 billion for the first time in 2008, according
to London-based New Energy Finance Ltd., but grew less than 5 percent in the
second half of 2008.
SolarWorld is pinning its hopes on plans by the Obama administration to
support green energy development. Belsner said he expects expanded tax
credits and other incentives aimed at not only boosting the ailing economy
but also at creating manufacturing jobs for Americans. By 2011 when
manufacturing capacity grows to 500,000 megawatts per year, the new
Hillsboro facility will employ 1,000 workers drawn from the local pool of
semiconductor workers laid off by chip makers like Intel Corp.
Unlike most photovoltaic cell makers, SolarWorld manufactures all of its
solar cell components, ranging from silicon ingots, wafers, solar cells and
modules. SolarWorld manufactures polysilicon solar cells for the German
market that are cheaper to make but less efficient than monocrystalline
solar cells. In the U.S., however, SolarWorld makes only monocrystalline
solar cells.
SolarWorld said it selected Oregon for its U.S. manufacturing base because
of state tax credits and the availability of a local seminconductor
manufacturing plant for sale at 10 cents on the dollar. Komatsu
Semiconductor built the 480,000-square-foot facility in Hillsboro for $400
million, but never manufactured chips there. In 2008, the empty facility was
sold to SolarWorld for just $40 million.
While the new facility is used to manufacture components, SolarWorld's
Camarillo, Calif., plant handles assembly. Eventually, the Oregon plant also
is expected to assemble solar modules.
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