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Solland Solar has sold its Sunweb Metal Wrap Through cell manufacturing operations in The Netherlands to Pufin Group for an undisclosed sum. Solland Solar will concentrate on its Sunweb module development and will continue to focus on its PV systems solutions business. Schott Solar also contributed to the development of the Sunweb modules. Pufin Group is involved in the PV industry through its affiliates EL.ITAL in Avellino, Italy and ELIFRANCE, in Saint Etienne, France. Pufin Group will continue to use Solland Solar’s cell technology in its subsidiaries' modules and Solland will continue to purchase cells from Pufin.
“Considering the difficult situation the PV industry finds itself in we are extremely happy to have found a good solution for our cell activities,” noted Henk Roelofs, Solland Solar CEO. “It enables Solland to speed up the transition from cell manufacturer to solar solutions provider while still securing the jobs of people involved in cell production”.
Solland Solar noted that approximately 70 staff are engaged in cell manufacturing at its plant in Holland, which has an annual capacity of 130MWp.
"The European market still offers important development and growth opportunities and with the creation of this group, which will represent one of the major European players in the photovoltaic, also by virtue of the significant investments made for several million euros of which much made by Solland Solar Cells, we are ready to capture [these] opportunities,” commented Massimo Pugliese, CEO of Pufin Group. “We believe that product quality will be the future differentiator to overcome the Far East low cost production.”
Pufin noted that it will also be working to increase the number of cell customers and expand capacity when required.
