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Last week at the PV Industry Forum, CEOs from Suntech, Q-Cells, ersol, E-Concern and Applied Materials came together to discuss key issues facing the PV industry. Anton Millner, CEO of Q-Cells, mentioned the €1.3 billion turnover of his company in 2008 as a milestone already achieved and was quick to note that in 2009, €2 billion in turnover was the new target.

How would they achieve this, you might ask? Anton touched on the strategies Q-Cells has in place including: €400 million investment in production capacity; announcements of new fabs in Mexicali and Malaysia to create a “world-wide production net”; and growing manufacturing output at a rate that will see them achieve 2GW per annum of production by 2010. This would increase Q-Cells’ output by a factor of five on 2007 figures.

He also stated that the entire industry has been growing by 50-60% year-on-year, so it was not unusual that Q-Cells would have such an aggressive ramp schedule and revenue growth target. On the contrary, Anton sees the current growth and future plans as “business as usual.”

The successful CEO roundtable ended on a philosophically high note as Dr Shi, CEO of Suntech, expressed his passion for solar as “the ultimate solution for humanity and our children”.



The PV Industry Forum 2008 - the participants of the CEO Panel Discussion (from left to right): Charles Gay, Applied Materials; Dr. Zhengrong Shi, CEO, Suntech; Mr. Anton Milner, CEO, Q-Cells AG; Dr. Claus Beneking, CEO, ersol Solar Energy AG; Dr. Ad van Wijk, CEO, Econcern; Thomas Kausch, Journalist.