Air Liquide has signed several new contracts since January to supply gases and onsite services to solar wafer and cell manufacturers in five countries. The company says it plans to invest €13 million to meet the needs of those customers.
Two of the customer sites are among the largest solar science parks in the world, with an annual production capacity of more than 1000 MW.
Air Liquide will supply all carrier and specialty gases as well as on-site services to REC’s new Gigawatt wafer and solar cells production campus in Singapore. This project is one of the largest photovoltaic investments under way in Southeast Asia, with a planned combined production of 1500 MW.
The materials company has also signed a contract to supply carrier gases to Suntech’s gigawatt-scale facilities in Wuxi, China.
Multiple, long-term supply contracts were also awarded to Air Liquide by Bosch-Ersol for its new thin-film plant in Erfurt, Germany, and by five new solar cell companies in Europe and Asia.
Air Liquide claims that the REC and Suntech contracts, combined with the existing supply deal with Q-Cells in the biggest production site worldwide in Germany and also in Malaysia, make it a leading partner to three of the largest PV production sites.