Online information source for semiconductor professionals

The Dubai Government is following in the footsteps of the Abu Dhabi Government with the formation of a photovoltaics manufacturing company that will use Applied Materials ‘SunFab’ solar thin film technology. Solar Technologies FZE has been established in the Dubai Technopark, which will invest initially in two ‘SunFab’ lines with a capacity of 130MW with production slated to begin at the end of 2010. The new company plans to expand production to 1GW by 2015 with manufacturing plants in China, Mexico and Bulgaria. Total investment is estimated at over $1 billion.

The new business was announced at a two day event held in Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, by Mr. Sultan bin Sulayem, Chairman of Dubai World. The Dubai news follows that of Masdar PV in May 2008 to invest initially $600 million in two separate ‘SunFab’ turnkey module production lines supplied by Applied Materials in Erfurt, Germany and in Abu Dhabi.

“The potential of solar energy is unbelievable. The energy from sunlight striking the earth for 40 minutes is equivalent to the global energy consumption for a whole year,” commented Mr. Dilip Rahulan, Chairman and CEO, Solar Technologies FZE. “The mission of Solar Technologies is to accelerate the adoption of solar photo voltaic by rapidly expanding manufacturing capacity and significantly reducing the cost of solar modules through innovations and manufacturing excellence. We intend to become one of the largest solar photo voltaic module manufacturing units in the world over a period of time.”