The investment is reportedly one of the largest investments ever made in solar, and will fund a three-phased manufacturing and expansion strategy to produce the latest generation of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules.
Phase one involves an investment of $600 million, which will fund the development of two manufacturing facilities. The first facility, in Erfurt,
Germany will be operational by the third quarter of 2009, and a second facility in Abu Dhabi will begin initial production by the second quarter of 2010. The combined annual production capacity of these two sites will be 210MW.
The German plant will act as a reference plant for technology and knowledge transfer to the larger Abu Dhabi plant by a joint German-Abu Dhabi team. With a goal of reaching 1GW of annual production by 2014, through capacity expansions and other new plants, this multi-country operation is expected to allow Masdar PV to become a global player in thin-film PV.
Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar, said, Thin-film PV is a key part of our build-deploy-develop strategy to actively build a strong position in alternative energy. Abu Dhabi is a global energy leader, so it makes sense to engage these new energy technologies and become a leader in alternatives.
