A new PV cell start-up based in Italy, SOLSONICA S.p.A., has
commissioned M+W Zander Italia S.r. to convert part of an existing IC
memory module assembly plant owned by parent company EEMS S.p.A. into a
PV cell manufacturing plant in Rieti, Italy.
SOLSONICA S.p.A. plans to manufacture polycrystal silicon solar cells
on a production area of 3,500 square meters and an additional 2,000
square meters of service area. Production is planned for mid-2008 with
an initial annual production of 30MWp/year. Future plans include
expanding the production to 120MWp/year. Tool move-in and start and
commissioning are scheduled for January 2008.
This is the first
PV project M+W Zander has undertaken in Italy, and the company is
working closely with Air Product Italia S.r.l. and Sapio Produzione
Idrogeno e Ossigeno S.r.l. to upgrade gas and chemical distribution
systems, electrical systems, compressed air distribution and the
demineralized water distribution plant.
The Rieta facility was originally built by Texas Instruments as a back-end semiconductor memory module facility.
