Bosch has announced plans for a new solar energy manufacturing site in Penang, Malaysia. With an investment of some 520 million euros, the construction project would be one of the biggest in the company’s history.
“With this investment, Bosch is moving further along the path of internationalization it has already set for its photovoltaics business,” said Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of the Bosch board of management, in Stuttgart.
The manufacturing site in Batu Kawan will mainly serve Asia’s solar energy market, which is set to see average annual growth of 30 percent in the coming years. Components for manufacturing sites in other countries will also be produced at in Malaysia.
“The planned facility will cover the entire value-added chain, from silicon crystals – known as ingots – and solar cells to the modules which can be installed on roofs or in solar power plants,” said Holger von Hebel, chairman of Bosch Solar Energy AG. Start of production is planned for the end of 2013.
Some 2000 associates will be working at the site in Penang, producing solar power plants with a total output of 640 megawatts peak each year. The module production lines will reach an annual capacity of 150 megawatts peak (the megawatt unit commonly used in the solar energy industry to indicate the power rating, and thus the best possible output, of a solar cell.)
