The facility is slated to cover the entire value chain from ingot production to solar module end products. Only silicon production is not included in the plans. The facility is aimed to lower costs by the high degree of integration and thus offer photovoltaic modules at competitive prices. The order volume for the consortium is estimated at around 290 million euros with centrotherm photovoltaics holding the lion's share. The plant will be located in Rouiba, 30 kilometers east of capital Algiers.
The turnkey solutions provider, centrotherm photovoltaics, will deliver the systems, ingot furnaces to module production technology, and additionally offer its support to Sonelgaz throughout the system commissioning. Engineering services, construction management, the turnkey production of the building, and the technical fittings for the building will be handled by Kinetics Germany.
The first modules are expected to be produced at the integrated plant by 2014 and will supply the domestic market.
"It gives us pleasure to be able to support Sonelgaz in this groundbreaking photovoltaic project. Our expertise as a photovoltaic technology leader, the lowest production costs per watt-peak, and our many years of experience in turnkey projects proved persuasive to our Algerian customers", commented Robert M. Hartung, CEO and Management Board Chairman of centrotherm photovoltaics. "Solar energy possesses great market potential particularly in very sunny countries such as Algeria, or in the Arabian region, because it is unrivalled in terms of cost compared with other energy sources."
Algeria receives more than 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, one of the highest in the world.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.