News Article
New Facility In Freiburg
Solar-Fabrik AG opens hi-tech production plant in Freiburg
Solar-Fabrik AG has today opened a new production facility for manufacturing solar power modules in Freiburg. The new plant increases the overall capacity by 60 megawatts (MW) to a total of 130 MW and ensures a further increase in quality.
"Almost the entire production volume for the year was already sold at the beginning of 2009," explains Günter Weinberger, CEO of Solar-Fabrik AG. "With the new factory, we are able to meet our customers' growing demand for quality modules. The high degree of automation increases the efficiency and the productivity, and enables the quality standards to be increased even further."
Covering 15,000 m2, the new production hall offers sufficient space for developing a capacity of up to 200 MW. 60 MW was realised in the first expansion phase. 60-70 jobs will be initially created in Plant III. The next expansion stage is earmarked for next year. For the board of Solar-Fabrik AG, the new plant in Freiburg's Hochdorf industrial estate provides testimony to Freiburg as a business location. Cutting edge technology is used for the new production line.
"We have developed the concept for the line in conjunction with one of the market leaders for fully automatic production systems for photovoltaics," explains Andreas Blochel, Head of Production and Process Technologies: "All components in the line are state of the art. We rely on cooperation with worldwide market leaders whose systems have already proven themselves in the Solar-Fabrik."
New technological features include, for example, automatic transverse soldering and an innovative connection socket concept. The production facility is controlled using a Manufacturing Execution System, which enables all operational, process and material consumption data to be accessed online. Automatic handling of the fragile solar cells reduces the breakage rate. An increased number of cycles, reduced processing times as well as greater process and testing security increase the productivity. The fully integrated storage technology with numerous loading platforms offers customers and suppliers a quick and secure handling service.
"Almost the entire production volume for the year was already sold at the beginning of 2009," explains Günter Weinberger, CEO of Solar-Fabrik AG. "With the new factory, we are able to meet our customers' growing demand for quality modules. The high degree of automation increases the efficiency and the productivity, and enables the quality standards to be increased even further."
Covering 15,000 m2, the new production hall offers sufficient space for developing a capacity of up to 200 MW. 60 MW was realised in the first expansion phase. 60-70 jobs will be initially created in Plant III. The next expansion stage is earmarked for next year. For the board of Solar-Fabrik AG, the new plant in Freiburg's Hochdorf industrial estate provides testimony to Freiburg as a business location. Cutting edge technology is used for the new production line.
"We have developed the concept for the line in conjunction with one of the market leaders for fully automatic production systems for photovoltaics," explains Andreas Blochel, Head of Production and Process Technologies: "All components in the line are state of the art. We rely on cooperation with worldwide market leaders whose systems have already proven themselves in the Solar-Fabrik."
New technological features include, for example, automatic transverse soldering and an innovative connection socket concept. The production facility is controlled using a Manufacturing Execution System, which enables all operational, process and material consumption data to be accessed online. Automatic handling of the fragile solar cells reduces the breakage rate. An increased number of cycles, reduced processing times as well as greater process and testing security increase the productivity. The fully integrated storage technology with numerous loading platforms offers customers and suppliers a quick and secure handling service.
