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Norwegian solar company NorSun has announced intentions to set up a solar wafer manufacturing factory in Singapore.
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Norwegian solar company NorSun has announced intentions to set up a solar wafer manufacturing factory in Singapore. The first-of-its-kind in Singapore, this S$416 million (US$300 million) world-scale facility will produce monocrystalline silicon wafers. Monocrystalline silicon wafers, more efficient than the popular multicrystalline wafers, are used in the production of high-end solar cells.
NorSun's facility in Singapore, its largest production centre in the world with a capacity of 350MW, is expected to begin commercial manufacturing in the third quarter of 2009. A leading producer of monocrystalline silicon wafers for the international solar energy market, NorSun already has one plant in Vantaa, Finland, and a 185MW manufacturing plant in Årdal, Norway will be ready by this year.
A highly skilled workforce, low set-up cost and operational risk as well as governmental support and commitment to the solar industry are some of the factors that influenced the company's decision to set up base here.
"NorSun already has customer commitments that require a rapid capacity expansion of high quality monocrystalline wafers. At the same time, NorSun is committed to continue to reduce its manufacturing cost. In this context, both the project execution and costs of construction and operations become crucial," says Jon Hindar, CEO, NorSun. "As Singapore is well positioned to provide exactly that, the choice of Singapore for our latest world-scale solar wafer fab is ideal for NorSun."
The investment represents another big step forward for Singapore's fast-growing solar energy industry. It has the distinction of being the country's second solar wafer manufacturing plant, after another Norwegian solar player, Renewable Energy Corporation.
As the first plant to produce monocrystalline silicon wafer here, a product used to convert sunlight into energy, NorSun's plant is expected to diversify the industry's ecosystem. "This investment attests to the holistic attraction of Singapore in hosting a vibrant, world-class solar industry cluster," says Ko Kheng Hwa, Managing Director, Singapore Economic Development Board.
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