Cell production at Bosch Solar Energy
Bosch has announced that it has decided to discontinue its activities in crystalline photovoltaics Business. Bosch said that it will stop manufacturing ingots-wafers-cells and modules by the beginning of 2014. Also Bosch will sell the Solar Manufacturing facility in Vénissieux-France and end New Solar Manufacturing Facility plans in Malaysia and stop the development and marketing activities.
Also Bosch has announced the plans to sell its shares in aleo solar AG. But Bosch has said that it will continue Bosch Solar CISTech GmbH in Brandenburg, Germany, which is a development center for thin-film technology.
Over the past years, Bosch Solar Energy has tried unsuccessfully to achieve a competitive position. Due to global overcapacity, which has since become huge, nearly the entire industry is sustaining heavy losses.
Dr. Stefan Hartung, the chairman of the Bosch Solar Energy AG supervisory board said “Despite extensive measures to reduce manufacturing cost over the past year, we were unable to offset the drop in prices, which was as much as 40 percent.” As announced in January 2013, the losses of the Solar Energy division came to some one billion euros last year. The division currently employs some 3,000 associates, roughly 850 of them at aleo solar AG and some 150 at CISTech.
“Over recent months, Bosch has comprehensively examined every aspect of its solar business. We have considered the latest technological advances, cost-reduction potential, and strategic alignment. And there have also been talks with potential partners. However, none of these possibilities resulted in a solution for the Solar Energy division that would be economically viable over the long term. We deeply regret this,” said Dr. Volkmar Denner, the chairman of the Bosch board of management.
