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Sunwell, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMC Magnetics, located in Taiwan has started volume production in the last month, reaching over 10,000 solar panel output. Sunwell is a new entrant to the thin film PV manufacturing market and is the first of three Oerlikon Solar a-Si thin film production line customers to enter volume production in Taiwan. Oerlikon Solar said that from delivery of equipment to shipments was less than nine months.

"It was amazing to see how quickly and professionally Oerlikon Solar experts were able to commission our facility.  This experience gives us a great deal of confidence in our plans to expand Sunwell's manufacturing capacity to gigawatt level production in the coming years", states Bob Wong, Chairman of CMC Magnetics.  The facility is based on amorphous silicon thin film technology and has a yearly production capacity of 40 MWp.

"With Sunwell in mass production, Oerlikon Solar's first Asian customer is becoming a leading supplier in the rapidly growing Asian thin film solar panel market, and they're doing it with our technology. We see this as an important milestone for both Sunwell and Oerlikon Solar," noted Jeannine Sargent, CEO Oerlikon Solar.

Two additional Oerlikon Solar end-to-end fab lines have already been purchased by Sunwell, which include a 60MW line for its existing site in Taiwan and one 120MW for a second location currently under construction. The second site will use Oerlikon Solar’s, micromorph tandem junction technology.

Sunwell has currently one of the most aggressive MW ramp rates of all the thin film solar manufacturers based in Taiwan. The company is targeting to reach a capacity of 460MW in 2009 and reach 1GW in 2010.