PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Expanding Eurosolare increases stake in Pacific Solar

The Italian cell and module manufacturer Eurosolare, a full subsidiary of the Eni group, has added to its stake in Pacific Solar, an Australian company that is developing proprietary silicon thin-film cell technology.

Eurosolare plans to distribute Pacific Solar's Plug & Power AC mounting system in Europe in the near future.

With the increase in shares from 15 to 25 percent, Nettuno (near Rome)-based Eurosolare realized a buy option from last October's investment contract with Pacific Solar (see PI 11/2000, p. 29). Neither company wanted to disclose the percentage of shares held by other investors.

Pacific Solar was founded in February 1995 as a spin-off from the University of New South Wales together with the Australian utility Pacific Power, its major shareholder, which invested more than $46 million AUD ($23 million USD) during the first five business years. But Pacific Solar needed a cash infusion; its 20 MW module factory won't begin production until at least October 2002, says managing director David Hogg – which is three years behind the original plan (see PI 6/1998, p. 11).

Eurosolare's augmented stake in Pacific Solar is only part of that company's expansion plans. In its Italian factory, Eurosolare plans to increase cell production from last year's 2.4 MW to 5 MW in 2001 and 10 MW in 2002. And the first ingots were recently completed at a new 2 MW wafer production factory in China. In addition, Eurosolare wants to offer Pacific Solar's first available product in Europe soon. Plug & Power, a mounting system with an attached mini-inverter (see PI 6/1999, p. 14), will be sold with Eurosolare's 145 W PL 16 modules. »We are in the process of negotiating the distribution and are still looking for new distributors,« says Francesca Ferrazza of Eurosolare. »It is a matter of months.« She wouldn't give a more detailed schedule. It's possible that certification issues for the Australian inverters still need resolving; Hogg told PHOTON International last October that this was an obstacle in entering the German market. But Ferrazza wouldn't comment on that.