Business

Thursday February 9, 2012

Robert Bosch still committed to solar panel project

By FINTAN NG and DAVID TAN
starbiz@thestar.com.my


PETALING JAYA: German-based technology company Robert Bosch GmbH is delaying the construction of its RM2.2bil solar panel manufacturing plant in Batu Kawan, Penang while evaluating the most technologically advantageous direction for the plant.

Robert Bosch (SEA) Pte Ltd president and managing director as well as managing director of Robert Bosch Sdn Bhd Martin Hayes said in a statement that the company remained committed to the construction of the plant in Penang.

“The new facility would be an essential part of our globalisation target to further reduce costs and increase energy yields,” he said, adding that the company was postponing the construction to a later time this year as it evaluates the best direction for the plant in terms of technology implementation.

Construction of the plant was scheduled for the end of last year with production to start by the end of 2013.

Hayes said the company was convinced that photovoltaics has long-term business potential and “will play a major part in the progressive move to new sources of energy”.

Robert Bosch head of solar Siegfried Dais was quoted by the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday as saying that construction of the plant was delayed to ensure it would be built to the most modern specifications.

According to the report, the company's solar operations posted revenue of 800 million euros last year, failing to meet the year's target of more than one billion euros.

Nevertheless, Hayes said “Bosch is pushing ahead on the path for internationalisation of photovoltaics, despite the current difficult market environment”.

Meanwhile, investPenang general manager Loo Lee Lian told StarBiz the state government would do its best to expedite the solar panel manufacturing project for Bosch Solar Energy AG, the publicly-listed unit of Robert Bosch that would be undertaking the project.

She said the company had started to make payments to fulfill the terms and conditions of the sale for the 80-acre site in Batu Kawan.

“We were recently informed by the company that due to its re-orientation to the most advantageous technology in view of global over-capacity and massive slowdown in global solar consumption, there might be possible delays in implementing the solar project in Batu Kawan,” Loo said.

When completed, the Batu Kawan plant would have an annual capacity of 800 megawatts peak (MWp) for wafers and 620MWp peak for cells. This would be on top of producing solar power plants with a total output of 640MWp and module production lines of 150MWp.

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