SolarWorld

SolarWorld AG this year will honor Nobel Peace Prize laureate and micro-finance pioneer Muhammad Yunus by presenting the 2010 SolarWorld Einstein Award to him in September. The professor of economics from Bangladesh and founder of the Grameen Bank will receive the award in recognition of his breakthrough concept of micro-loans for the poor, which have helped millions of people worldwide to escape poverty.

Presenting its group interim report for the first half of 2010, SolarWorld confirms previously reported figures. Compared with the same period of 2009, groupwide shipments in the first half of 2010 rose 58 percent to 377 (first half 2009: 239) MW. Revenue grew by 50.8 percent to € 608.4 (first half 2009: € 403.4) million. EBIT for the first half of the year amounted to € 81.2 (first half 2009: € 83.3) million while the EBIT margin ran to 13.3 percent.

SolarWorld AG continued the sustainable, international growth of the group in the second quarter of 2010. Group-wide shipments went up in comparison with the level of the same period of the previous year of 125 MW by 90 percent to 237 MW. At the same time, the company boosted its revenue by 68.6 percent from € 227.1 million in the second quarter of 2009 to € 382.8 million in the second quarter of 2010.

With two expansion projects, SolarWorld AG is reconfirming its commitment to Germany as a production location. Today, the solar power manufacturer celebrates the laying of the foundation stone at its third module production facility in Freiberg in Saxony, SolarWorld AG’s largest site worldwide. By the beginning of 2011, the group will have established a modern, fully automated production facility for crystalline photovoltaic modules on a 26,000 square meter plot of land in the Saxonia Industrial Park.

With two expansion projects, SolarWorld AG is reconfirming its commitment to Germany as a production location. Today, the solar power manufacturer celebrates the laying of the foundation stone at its third module production facility in Freiberg in Saxony, SolarWorld AG’s largest site worldwide. By the beginning of 2011, the group will have established a modern, fully automated production facility for crystalline photovoltaic modules on a 26,000 square meter plot of land in the Saxonia Industrial Park.

Podolski, Klopp, Hagman and many other celebrities support the Sun-TV project

Group makes one of the largest German solar investments at the Freiberg location

On the Arab Peninsula the importance of solar power as a clean, safe and sustainable source of energy is growing. The Chairman and CEO of German SolarWorld AG, Frank H. Asbeck, is expecting a strong expansion of photovoltaic technology in this sun-pampered region. Asbeck is accompanying the Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel within the framework of a business delegation. The four-day trip by the Chancellor through the Gulf States – United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar – is designed to intensify existing German-Arab industry contacts and to initiate new business relations.

SolarWorld AG, one of Germany's largest solar companies by revenue, is betting big on U.S. production, expecting to lift its capacity here to 500 megawatts by year's end and maybe double that if demand remains strong.

Boris Klebensberger, chief operating officer of SolarWorld and president of its Americas unit, said the company is using about half of the available space at its Hillsboro, Oregon location.

SolarWorld is in the final stage of an expansion at Hillsboro, meant to boost U.S. production capacity to 500 MW.

But Klebensberger said there could still be room to grow.

System of Management Board Remuneration Accepted – Large Majority for Other Agenda Items