PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

RWE Schott inaugurates module production
in the Czech Republic

Still not even fully in operation and already award-winning – RWE Schott Solar GmbH had a good start with its module factory in Valašské Mezirící in the Czech Republic.

	© RWE SCHOTT Solar GmbH
The biggest: The new plant in the Czech Republic is the largest of RWE Schott Solar's three module factories.

The plant, which is supposed to reach a capacity of 40 MW in its final stage, was opened on June 14, only 12 months after the investment was secured (see PI 9/2004, p. 13). A week beforehand, RWE Schott Solar's managing director responsible for production, Alexander Berg, accepted the third prize for the competition »Investor of Year« organized by the state-owned agency Czech Invest in Prague.

The Czech branch is operated under the name RWE Schott Solar CR, s.r.o. A total of around €45 million ($54.5 million) will be invested in the two lines of the module production. RWE Schott started with one line, but the second is to follow this summer.

To start, the new factory is aimed at serving German demand, but it is possible the Czech Republic could turn into a notable PV market soon. On March 31 the parliament in Prague adopted a law stipulating that 8 percent of the electricity usage must be generated from renewable resources by 2010. The introduction of a feed-in tariff is expected for 2007, but the exact amounts may be determined as early as this month (see PI 6/2005, p. 10).

For PHOTON International's cell and module survey 2004 (see PI 3/2005, p. 66), RWE Schott reported plans to keep module production capacity at its headquarters in Alzenau, Germany at 19 MW in 2005, while capacity was scheduled to increase at its Billerica, Massachusetts plant from 10 to 13 MW. Combined with the 40 MW capacity in Czech Republic, RWE Schott would have a total module capacity of 72 MW with a production target of 55 MW in 2005, which means that around 40 percent of the company's targeted 92 MW cell output for this year will be assembled by contracted OEM assemblers.