Meyer Burger Technology plans to restart module production in Germany’s ‘Solar Valley’ from 2021
Bonn — A Swiss company is buying up cheap solar assets in a move to reclaim a key link in Europe’s renewable energy supply chain from China.
The company bought the stock and patents of Germany’s bankrupt SolarWorld and rented a factory south of Berlin to build the solar modules. It has raised Sf165m to revive manufacturing, with a potential output covering almost a third of annual new European panel demand by the middle of the decade. Solar Valley, an hour’s drive south of Berlin, is an industrial reminder of Germany’s solar boom-to-bust years. In the heyday of module production in the late 2000s, the region boasted 3,500 workers, most employed at Q Cells. Insolvent by 2012, that company lingers on with less than a fifth of its former workforce in Germany as a unit of South Korea’s Hanwha.
It was suggested in a 2019 study commissioned by Meyer Burger, and undertaken by the independent Fraunhofer Institute, that the company’s future panels may be three years ahead of the competition, potentially generating more energy per square metre than similar technologies.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
WATCH: China Energy Longyuan Power in South Africa holds open day event on wind power projectAn open day was held this weekend to showcase operations, Covid-19 prevention and control measures and the resumption of work at the De Aar wind power project, South Africa’s largest wind power project.
Read more »
JOHN DLUDLU: Huawei debacle to loom large at US-China trade talksWith trade now blunted as a weapon to club Beijing, Trump has turned on the tech giant
Read more »
Rand recovers, stocks shrug off US-China tension
Read more »
Hong Kong imports to be labelled 'Made in China': US customsGoods imported from Hong Kong must be marked 'Made in China' to be sold in the United States.
Read more »
JSE firmer as US-China trade tension easesThe all share had firmed 0.96% and the top 40 1.03%
Read more »
China carries out threat to impose sanctions on 11 US citizensMove is in response to US sanctions on the same number of Chinese officials accused of curtailing political freedoms in Hong Kong
Read more »