From pv magazine Germany
The German authorities have arrested Christian Laibacher, the CEO of Solar Fabrik, in connection with an investigation by the Würzburg public prosecutor's office.
The prosecutor's office declined to provide additional details about the probe. The minimum import price for Chinese solar modules and cells in the European Union expired in 2018.
A Solar Fabrik spokesperson told pv magazine that the investigation is related to the activities of ESC Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG between 2014 and 2016. At the time, Christian Laibacher was the company's managing director.
“We ask for your understanding that we will not comment further on ongoing proceedings and expressly emphasize that the aforementioned process has no connection with Solar Fabrik GmbH,” the spokesperson said. However, Solar Fabrik employees were informed about these developments earlier this week.
The company's history reveals connections between Solar Fabrik and ESC Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG. After setting up ESC Verwaltungs GmbH in 2010, Laibacher served as managing director and applied for its liquidation in 2022.
In summer 2016, Laibacher acquired part of Solar Fabrik's production operations after it filed for bankruptcy. He then founded Solar Fabrik CL GmbH and moved production from Freiburg to Aschaffenburg.
In May of this year, Solar Fabrik announced plans to build a new factory for tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar modules with 300 MW of annual capacity at Hösbach, as other PV manufacturers such as Meyer Burger, Solarwatt, and Heckert Solar were shutting down production sites in Germany.
This spring, a reader told pv magazine about modules from the “Mono S5 Halfcut Installer Series” by Solar Fabrik. They were supposed to have 315 W of output, but tested at an average of 298 W. The data sheet claimed deviations of 0/+5 watts. This case ended with an out-of-court settlement.
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