Evergreen Solar
| Evergreen Solar Inc.
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Incorporated |
| founding | October 1994 |
| Seat |
Marlborough , Massachusetts United States
|
| management | Richard M. Feldt (CEO) |
| Number of employees | circa 700 (2008) |
| sales | 271.8 million US dollars (2009) |
| Branch | solar power |
| Website | www.evergreensolar.com |
The Evergreen Solar, Inc. ( NASDAQ : ESLR) was a publicly traded US-based solar company that, among other solar cells and solar modules manufacturing. The company had to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2011 .
String-Ribbon Process
Evergreen Solar holds all patents on the string ribbon process , also known as the SR process. The process was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This means that solar wafers , the basis of solar cells, can be manufactured more efficiently and with less consumption of resources than conventional technologies. In this case, polycrystalline wafers are not sawn from silicon blocks as is usual . Instead, thin wafers are drawn from a silicon melt between two carbon wires. Four silicon surfaces can be drawn simultaneously in the company's so-called quad systems.
The string-ribbon modules manufactured with this process can be manufactured with a significantly lower consumption of silicon and energy than with the other common production methods: The production technology is characterized by up to 50% less silicon consumption. Since silicon consumption determines the costs and energy consumption in the production of solar cells, the Evergreen modules have an energy amortization period of less than 12 months, which means that they generate more energy in less than a year than is required for their production was. Thanks to the modern production technology at Evergreen Solar, the solar modules also achieve a CO 2 balance that is up to 50% below that of conventional modules.
Products manufactured using this process generated sales revenue of approximately US $ 271.8 million for the company in 2009 (total sales in 2008: US $ 112.0 million).
Company profile
Evergreen Solar was listed on the US stock exchange and was also listed in the Photovoltaik Global 30 Index . In 2004, the German Evergreen Solar was founded in Berlin.
In Germany, Evergreen Solar was involved in Sovello (formerly EverQ GmbH) in Bitterfeld-Wolfen , a joint venture with Q-Cells and REC ( Renewable Energy Corporation ). At the beginning of 2010, Sovello was taken over by a new investor.
Evergreen Solar relocated its production of solar modules to China in the Wuhan region from the spring of 2010 . a. should produce started. This project is a joint venture between Evergreen Solar and a Chinese company. Evergreen Solar intended to drastically reduce its production costs for the solar modules by building the facility. Most recently, a major project was implemented in the southern Italian region of Apulia, which was selected by the Internet portal “solarserver.de” as “Solar System of the Month April 2010”.
insolvency
On August 15, 2011, the group presented at court in Delaware request for bankruptcy protection , and thus announced insolvency at. The company has $ 500 million in debt.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Evergreen Solar locations
- ↑ a b 2008 ANNUAL REPORT . Evergreen Solar, March 2009.
- ↑ Jörn Iken: Pulling or sawing - a system comparison ( memento of October 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) solarenergie.com. December 4, 2006, accessed August 16, 2010.
- ↑ Takeover of Sovello AG by Ventizz Capital Fund IV, LP completed . Sovello press release, April 26, 2010.
- ↑ www.solarserver.de: Attachment of the month April 2010
- ↑ FTD: Bankruptcy of US solar company frightens German competition ( Memento from September 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) accessed August 16, 2011