Plans for World's Largest PV Manufacturing Plant

Plans for construction of the world’s largest PV manufacturing plant—a 25 MW polycrystalline facility to be built in Gelsenkirchen, Germany—were announced on November 4, 1997. The plant will be built by Royal Dutch Shell, Pilkington Solar International, and Bayer Solar and is expected to be completed by mid-1999. This news comes on the heels of the mid-October announcement by Royal Dutch Shell that renewables will become an important part of their business during the next century (see

EBN

Vol. 6, No. 10, page 4). Meanwhile, Paul Maycock of

PV News reports that worldwide photovoltaic cell/module shipments in 1997 were 125.8 megawatts (MW) in peak capacity, a remarkable 42% increase over 1996 shipments. For details, and information on

PV News, contact PV Energy Systems at 540/349-4497 (www.pvenergy.com).