OC Oerlikon Corporation’s CEO Dr. Uwe Krüger has committed to significantly growing its solar business instead of selling the business in the near-term. With a reorganization, headed by recently appointed Jeannine Sargent as CEO of Oerlikon Solar, the company will escalate production capacities, increase research and development activities and enter new business areas more quickly, with reports claiming that acquisitions would be made where necessary. 

"The creation of a new solar segment establishes the right organizational environment to meet the vast demands of a rapidly growing solar market," said Dr. Uwe Krüger, Oerlikon’s CEO. "With the solar industry representing a multibillion Swiss Franc business opportunity for Oerlikon, we felt it vital to expand our current solar operations and investments worldwide."

Oerlikon Solar now plans to double production capacity at its plant in Truebbach, Switzerland and has established a 1 MWp pilot line.

"This new pilot line will allow us to train customer engineers under real conditions," said Detlev Koch-Ospelt, head of Solar Thin Film. "In addition we can conduct R&D and produce customer samples in a clean room environment. We will also install and use thin-film solar modules on the roof of our facility."

To support its expansion, Oerlikon Solar will be aggressively recruiting highly skilled individuals to join its rapidly growing solar team.

This news piece first appeared in PV-Tech