On January 12th, 2012 SCHOTT Solar AG (Mainz, Germany) announced that it will discontinue wafer manufacturing at its facility in Jena, Germany. This will conclude the company's restructuring efforts and affect 290 employees.

SCHOTT states that developments in the global solar industry, including overcapacities and severe price declines for wafers and cells, have made the termination of wafer production necessary. The company will open a technology center for monocrystalline wafers at the site in Jena, and will continue manufacturing thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) modules at the site as well.

“We will no longer be pursuing upstream stages of the value creation chain that only generate losses. Instead, we will be concentrating on the fast-growing module and project business," states SCHOTT Solar AG CEO Dr. Martin Heming.

"With the help of this new strategy, outstanding products and the strong SCHOTT Solar brand, we are in an excellent position to operate successfully in the difficult solar market."

SCHOTT to consider transferring wafer employees

SCHOTT states that it is evaluating the prospects of offering further employment for the affected employees in other areas of the company. The company also states that it is engaged in an intensive dialogue with social partners to come up with solutions other than dismissing staff for operational reasons.

SCHOTT also notes that it will launch its new SCHOTT PERFORM MONO high-performance PV module in the first half of 2012, and that it is engaged in successful joint research efforts on various technologies aimed at making solar energy more powerful while lowering prices.

SCHOTT states that these recent decisions will have no effect on its concentrating solar power (CSP) division.

2012-01-13| Courtesy: SCHOTT Solar AG | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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