Solarvalue AG (Berlin) and Sunways AG (Konstanz) concluded an R&D agreement (research and development). This agreement envisages a close cooperation in the field of R&D, aiming to produce marketable solar cells using solar grade silicon, made on the basis of metallurgical silicon. For years, Sunways has been active as a pioneer in the photovoltaic market. Its core competence is the development and production of integrated photovoltaic solutions and products like solar cells, solar inverters, solar modules and systems to generate power from solar energy. Solarvalue AG intends to produce large amounts of cut-price solar grade silicon from metallurgical silicon in the first half of 2008. The planed annual capacity in the production plant at the Slovenian city of Ruse due to the company amounts to several thousand tons.

"The cooperation agreement is a further milestone on our way into the market. With Sunways, we have found the perfect technology partner. Our short-term aim is to cooperate in order to create common know-how and to establish the use of our solar grade silicon in the production of marketable solar cells", said Dr. Julio Bragagnolo, board member and CTO of Solarvalue. "The experience particularly in cell production of which Sunways disposes due to its long standing activity is of the utmost importance to us", continued Dr. Bragagnolo. In the framework of the cooperation, Sunways is intending to produce solar cells from material provided by Solarvalue. Sunways CEO Roland Burkhardt is equally enthusiastic about the potential synergies of the cooperation: "We are firmly convinced that Solarvalue, with its unique knowledge base, has the competence to develop the new production process for solar grade silicon successfully".

The production of solar cells from silicon demands raw materials of a high degree of purity. The world over, scientists are looking into cheap production processes as an alternative to the known process to purify raw silicon, the so called Siemens-process. The method championed by Solarvalue is based on metallurgical silicon that is cleaned from impurities step by step in a particular process.

With the development cooperation successfully implemented, Solarvalue and Sunways want to extend the cooperation and intend to agree on a contract to supply solar grade silicon. The people responsible in both companies are firmly convinced that the common project will spawn a marketable product in the near future. "This is merely a first step in the direction of an intensified cooperation", said Solarvalue CEO Claudia Boehringer about future strategic planning.

2007-11-06 | Courtesy: Solarvalue AG | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH