Eastern Germany's sunny future

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http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100049624/?postversion=2007052206

(Fortune Magazine) -- The former East Germany, once one of the world's gloomiest places, has become home to one of the world's brightest industries: solar power.

In late April ground was broken at a former Soviet air base near Leipzig for a $176 million, 40-megawatt photo-voltaic power plant, four times the size of the largest existing solar plant in the world. The facility, being built by Germany's Juwi International, is scheduled to begin production in late 2009. When it does, it will add significant capacity to eastern Germany's mushrooming solar power industry.

Germany has invested $1.3 billion in photovoltaic research over the past decade, creating a $5 billion industry that accounts for 52% of the world's installed solar panels. Of 45 producers in Germany, 33 are start-ups in the former East Germany, employing 70% of the industry's 8,000 workers, with 2,000 new jobs on the way. Even companies headquartered in the west have most of their production in the east.

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China has set a goal of 15% renewable energy by 2010. With huge projects planned for its underdeveloped interior, photovoltaic capacity will rise to two gigawatts within three years - twice the size of the current German market - says Sal. Oppenheim energy analyst Hartmut Moers. "The question," he says, "is whether it will be more on the production side or more on the installation side."

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[Zenlitened]

1. "An important partner in this will be... First Solar..."

...An important partner in this will be the world’s leading thin-film specialist, First Solar, which like juwi follows the philosophy of fast market introduction of solar power. First Solar is supplying the modules for the Waldpolenz solar park. Most of the approximately 550,000 modules will be produced in the German town of Frankfurt on Oder, the location of the world’s biggest and most modern manufacture of thin-film modules.

Link:
http://www.solarbuzz.com/news/NewsEUPR331.htm