Arise Gains Support for Planned Gelsenkirchen Tech Center
Arise Technologies Corp. said it will lease a solar plant from Scheuten Solar and build a technology center in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, with government support. The 55 workers at the plant will receive a portion of their wages from the German government's "short time" program.
David Lammers, News Editor -- PV Society, 10/15/2009
In a series of innovative moves, Arise Technologies Corp. (Waterloo, Canada) said it will lease a solar plant from Scheuten Solar Holding BV (Venlo, Netherlands) and build a technology center in Germany with government support. Arise expects to receive €9.54 million ($14.25M) of funding from the government of North Rhine-Westphalia to support the launch of Arise Technology Centre GmbH (Gelsenkirchen, Germany).
The 55 workers now employed in Gelsenkirchen at the Scheuten Solar solar plant will transfer to the Arise technology center, and will receive a portion of their wages from the German government's "short time" program. The program, which continues until 2011, supports workers employed in plants that are in transition.
Arise operates a solar fab in Bischofswerda, Germany, and the company expects to transfer learning to Bischofswerda from the planned technology center as well as from the nearby Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Gelsenkirchen. Arise has other collaborative R&D projects with German and Canadian universities.
Arise also announced that Ian MacLellan, now president of the systems division, has taken on the additional duties of CTO. He will be responsible for developing the technology center, including hiring R&D staff "as the additional funding, grants and partners are put into place."
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| Vern Heinrichs, CEO, Arise |
"We appreciate this interest and support from the North Rhine-Westphalia government. This is the next step in delivering on our high-efficiency PV cell program and is a very important part of our strategy to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace," said Arise CEO Vern Heinrichs. "During the past year, as we navigated the challenges of the world economic issues, we have focused on developing a creative solution to implement our technology while conserving our cash resources."
Arise will be leasing the facility that will become the new technology center. Scheuten has the option to sell Arise the building for €3.24 million ($4.84M) in three years, or Arise can extend the lease for up to 27 years. Heinrichs said Arise also is acquiring the assets in the Scheuten plant for the equivalent of €1.7 million ($2.54M), "to be paid as minor price reductions on PV cells sold to Scheuten providing we purchase some OEM modules. We feel that this is a very good agreement for both Arise and Scheuten."
MacLellan said part of the role of the technology center will be to ramp up to production volumes in Gelsenkirchen of the company's high-efficiency PV cell technology and then transfer that know-how to the volume lines in Bischofswerda. "This approach is expected to minimize ramp-up expenses at our PV cell manufacturing plant and reduce our time to market," MacLellan said.
Heinrichs said the deal creates an opportunity to establish a relationship with Scheuten as a potential PV cell customer and modules supplier. "Delivering on our high-efficiency PV cell program is a very important part of our strategy to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace," Heinrichs said.
Scheuten's 4350 m2 PV cell plant in Gelsenkirchen was built by Shell Solar and started operation in 2000. Sjouke Zijlstra, general manager of Arise Germany, managed the design, construction and operations of the plant from 1998 to his joining Arise in 2007.
The Gelsenkirchen location is close to a number of German research institutes and universities. "We expect that this will help us attract additional experienced people to further our commercialization process," MacLellan said. "Acquiring this facility will also save time because building a technology center in Bischofswerda would take longer, and would require cash up front and more cash over the longer term."
