Russia Plans 120MW Solar Manufacturing Complex with Oerlikon Equipment

By Ucilia Wang

Russia is getting serious about getting into the solar business.

The Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano), which was created by the Russian government in 2007, said Wednesday it plans to set up a plant to produce 120 megawatts of solar panels per year. It plans to buy the factory equipment from Oerlikon (OERLF.PK) in Switzerland.

The Moscow company and an Russian investment firm, Renova Group, plan to invest 20.1 billion rubles ($636.84 million) in the new solar venture, which Rusnano said would be the largest solar manufacturing center in Russia.

An Oerlikon spokesman also told Reuters that that the Swiss company is negotiating with Rusnano for a contract worth 700 million Swiss francs ($635.34 million).

Oerlikon's solar subsidiary, Oerlikon Solar, develops factory equipment for making thin-film solar panels that uses amorphous silicon as a key ingredient for converting sunlight into electricity.

Rusnano said it wants Oerlikon's second-generation equipment, which would produce panels with amorphous silicon and microcrystalline silicon. The microcrystalline silicon layer boosts the panel's power output.

Rusnano plans up a new company to produce the solar panels. The new company would be located in the city of Novocheboksarsk in the Chuvash Republic, Rusnano said.

The goal is to start setting up the manufacturing base in the third quarter of this year. Rusnano said it expects the new factory to reach its 120-megawatt capacity by the end of 2011. It even has projected a revenue of 10.3 billion rubles ($326.3 million) for 2015.

The nanotech firm would contribute 3.7 billion rubles in equity and provide a loan of 9.8 billion rubles to the new company. Rusnano would hold a 49 percent stake in the new venture while Renova would get the rest. Renova also would be responsible for running the operations.

Renova, incidentally, is a major stakeholder in Oerlikon (the parent company).

For research and development, the new company would work the Physical Technical Institute of the Russian Academies of Sciences.

Russia isn't a large solar equipment producing country, but it seems intent to developing a booming solar industry. It has Nitol Solar, which makes polysilicon, an ingredient in most of the solar panels on the market today. In February this year, Rusnano said it would invest 7.5 billion rubles ($238 million) to help complete a polysiliconand monosilane production project by Nitol.