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Antec Solar restarts CdTe module production
Production at Antec Solar's factory in Arnstadt, Germany was relaunched in mid-May, following Frankfurt-based Ökologik Ecovest AG's acquisition of the rest of the insolvent module manufacturer. Ecovest itself is one of the biggest buyers of the factory's CdTe
product.
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ÖKOLOGIK ECOVEST AG |
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Resurrection: The German CdTe manufacturer Antec Solar has restarted its 10 MW factory. Dieter Plümacher is the new head of
production. |
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»I know that tomorrow the first truck will be heading
out,« announced Dieter Plümacher on June 11. The announcement was the climax of Plümacher's extraordinary effort to get Antec Solar's factory up and running
»at full steam« by mid-May. Employed at venture capital company Ökologik Ecovest AG, based in Frankfurt on Main, Germany, Plümacher, who describes himself as
»something similar to a head of production,"« and his colleagues took on this challenge at the start of April, following Ecovest's literally last-minute acquisition of Antec Solar's factory. In Aug. 2002, the
»old« Antec Solar GmbH announced insolvency and discontinued production. Despite several attempts, the struggling company couldn't find any buyers. But as the definitive end was in sight, Ecovest AG stepped in and acquired the company (see PI 5/2003, p. 8).
Waiting until the last minute– whether a calculated move or not– has certainly paid off, as the price tag for the building and production equipment was well below the minimum EUR3 million ($3.5 million) originally sought after by the liquidator. And for such a price, one doesn't find a complete solar module factory every day. This low purchase price should allow the new owners to produce modules with significantly lower costs than earlier calculations.
Nevertheless, underscores Plümacher, one »shouldn't underestimate the risk involved."«
It wasn't certain whether one could get the production machinery, which had been lying dormant for months, up and running again without any problems
– especially quality control problems, with which Antec battled until the very end, he adds. But Plümacher says that they have plenty of people who are familiar with the technology. In mid-June, around 45 employees, most of them from the previous crew, signed up with the new
»Antec Solar Energy GmbH.« That number has now reached upwards of 80 employees. The former company's leadership, however, is no longer on board.
In the meantime, the company in Arnstadt is confident that its business with CdTe modules will flourish. In this year alone, around 5 MW of total module power is slated to leave the factory, and by 2004 that total is targeted to jump to 10 MW.
The Arnstadt-based factory's standard product is currently a 50 W module, which is foreseen for use primarily in PV power plants on undeveloped areas. CdTe's significantly lower efficiency, at least when compared with crystalline
modules, »isn't a problem at all« when used in these kinds of systems, says Plümacher. The plans are to use the Antec modules first and foremost in large projects, a significant proportion of which will be systems initiated by Ecovest via investment funds. That means the costs of these systems are based on
»internal sales,"« which is why Plümacher currently cannot provide an end customer
price. »I still have to do those calculations,"« he says. But private customers are definitely not the target group. The production output of the first three months are already
reserved. »We have to wait and see when we will be able to sell to wholesalers,"«
says Plümacher.
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