Saint-Gobain joins Hyundai Heavy Industries to build the largest thin film solar cell factory

Hyundai Heavy Industries and Saint-Gobain of France will cooperate to build the largest thin-film solar cell factory in Korea. The two companies will each invest 110 billion won (99 million US dollars) in the plant, with a total investment of 198 million US dollars.

The cooperation between the two parties will take the form of a joint venture, each with a 50% stake. The joint venture is called Hyundai Avancis. The joint venture's first manufacturing plant design will be identical to the Saint-Gobain Group's current plant in Germany. The German plant is the second thin-film solar plant of the Saint-Gobain Group.

The Korean plant will produce 850,000 modules based on copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film technology each year. The plant will be commissioned in the second quarter of 2012 to supply products to the global market. The modules will be sold separately by their two parent companies.

Hyundai Heavy Industries maintains a leading position in the global shipbuilding market and also produces advanced solar and wind turbine systems.

The company is said to be the only company in Korea that can produce all of its solar value chain products, from polysilicon, solar cells and solar modules to power conditioning systems.

Hyundai Heavy Industries is currently expanding its plant to increase the annual production capacity of silicon solar cells and modules from 330MW to 600MW. In August 2010, the company won a $700 million contract from Matinee Energy of the US to build a new one for the latter. 175MW solar power station.

Saint-Gobain Group sells, designs, manufactures and distributes building materials and electronic materials. It produces solar cells through its Avancis division.