Bosch is continuing to make major inroads into the global solar PV market, recently announcing a new solar panel manufacturing site in the Batu Kawan region in Penang, Malaysia.
The AUD$703 million plant is one of the biggest investments in Bosch’s history and will serve Asia’s burgeoning solar power market; which is expected to see annual average growth of 30 percent over the coming years. Total installed output in the region is expected to jump from the current 5 gigawatts capacity to 130 gigawatts by 2020.
A fully integrated facility, Bosch’s Malaysia plant will cover the entire value added chain – from silicon crystals, to solar cell and panel production.
Development of the site is expected to commence before the end of this year, with view to production commencing by the end of 2013. At that point, 2000 workers will be employed at the plant, producing 640 megawatts capacity of solar cells annually, with 150 megawatts of that figure going towards building solar modules on-site. The plant will also provide cells to Bosch manufacturing sites in other countries.
Late last year, Bosch opened a new solar cell plant, located in Arnstadt, Germany, boosting Bosch’s production by an extra 10,000 cells an hour – around 90 million solar cells a year.
Bosch Solar Energy has enjoyed a number of major achievements over the last 12 months; including the unveiling of a record-breaking large-format solar cell, which delivers 19.6 percent solar energy conversion rate. PERC – Passive Emitter and Rear Cell – technology is expected to be incorporated into Bosch solar modules by the end of the year.
In additional to solar PV, Bosch is also heavily invested in the production of solar hot water systems; with a special focus on flat plate collector technology.
The Bosch Group began in Stuttgart in 1886 and now has more than 300 subsidiaries and regional companies in over 60 countries.
