Tool Order: GroupSat places multi-million dollar order with RENA for new CIGS thin film plant

As part of its plans to build a thin-film CIGS (copper, indium, gallium and selenide)  solar cell production line in Mudu, Suzhou China, GroupSat has placed an initial multi-million dollar purchase order with RENA for its complement of inline cleaning and inline CdS deposition systems. According to RENA, it expects a follow-on order after the first shipments are made during the fourth quarter of 2009. GroupSat wants to expand production capacity to 100MW by 2011.

“GroupSat in conjunction with the Government of China have an aggressive multi-year, multi-site plan to become a leading worldwide manufacturer of CIGS solar cells,” noted Nasir M. Ameriar, Chief Executive Officer of GroupSat Hong Kong Co., Ltd. “Our short term goal is to aggressively ramp to 100MW capacity during 2010 and 2011, which will entail the purchase of additional RENA systems.   We spent a lot of time researching and surveying the suppliers of CIGS manufacturing tools, and were very impressed with RENA in terms of technology and expertise.”

“This partnership is especially important to us because together, with GroupSat as CIGS technology provider and RENA as wet process and equipment solution provider, we can accelerate the production of Flexible CIGS Solar Modules in Asia, commented Jürgen Gutekunst, RENA’s Managing Director. “With the growth of China and Asian markets and their future need for alternative energy CIGS is offering enormous perspectives for the future.”

The equipment orders for RENA follow quickly after Veeco won a supply deal with GroupSat for its complete line of ‘FastFlex’ Web Coating Systems.