Another victory for consolidation in the solar industry occurred today — and that is good news for the overall health of solar worldwide.
The European solar technology manufacturer SolarWorld AG announced the acquisition of the cell and module production of Bosch Solar Energy in Arnstadt in the German federal state of Thuringia. This means that around 800 jobs will be preserved and secured in the wholly-owned SolarWorld subsidiary SolarWorld Industries-Thüringen GmbH.
The purchase agreement was signed today. With this purchase, SolarWorld takes over a cell production plant with a nominal year-end capacity of 700 MW and a module production plant with a nominal year-end capacity of 200 MW from Bosch Solar Energy AG.
With the acquisition, the first European solar energy group with a production capacity of over one gigawatt arises. SolarWorld produces solar wafers, solar cells and solar modules in Germany and the United States. Together with the newly acquired production facilities, SolarWorld will be the largest solar technology manufacturer in the Western world.
Bosch and SolarWorld use cell technologies with high degrees of efficiency. Both are leaders in the technological development and industrial application of high-efficiency PERC technology. With the consolidation of research activities and with their combined production experience, SolarWorld expects further efficiency gains and cost reductions. The implementation of the acquisition as well as the successful completion of the SolarWorld’s restructuring process is to take place at the end of February 2014. The transaction is subject to a pending antitrust approval and other closing conditions.
I hope this does not reduce the US-sourcing of PV cells in SolarWorld modules sold in the USA. It would be nice if SolarPowerWorldOnline would investigate this aspect of the deal.