OC Oerlikon Corporation’s CEO Dr. Uwe Krüger has committed to
significantly growing its solar business instead of selling the
business in the near-term. With a reorganization, headed by recently
appointed Jeannine Sargent as CEO of Oerlikon Solar, the company will
escalate production capacities, increase research and development
activities and enter new business areas more quickly, with reports
claiming that acquisitions would be made where necessary.
“The creation of a new solar segment establishes the right
organizational environment to meet the vast demands of a rapidly
growing solar market,” said Dr. Uwe Krüger, Oerlikon’s CEO. “With the
solar industry representing a multibillion Swiss Franc business
opportunity for Oerlikon, we felt it vital to expand our current solar
operations and investments worldwide.”
Oerlikon Solar now plans
to double production capacity at its plant in Truebbach, Switzerland
and has established a 1 MWp pilot line.
“This new pilot line
will allow us to train customer engineers under real conditions,” said
Detlev Koch-Ospelt, head of Solar Thin Film. “In addition we can
conduct R&D and produce customer samples in a clean room
environment. We will also install and use thin-film solar modules on
the roof of our facility.”
To support its expansion, Oerlikon
Solar will be aggressively recruiting highly skilled individuals to
join its rapidly growing solar team.