Bosch’s manufacture of ingots, wafers, cells, and modules will be ceased at beginning of 2014. All development and marketing activities will end. The module plant in Vénissieux, France, is to be sold. Plans to construct a manufacturing facility in Malaysia are now axed.
Bosch plans to sell its shares in Aleo solar AG. Bosch Solar CISTech GmbH in Brandenburg, Germany, will be continued – as before – as a development centre for thin-film technology.
Bosch said that it had tried and failed to achieve a competitive position in photovoltaics adding that “nearly the entire industry is sustaining heavy losses,” because of overcapacity.
Bosch Solar Energy chairman Dr Stefan Hartung explained: “Despite extensive measures to reduce manufacturing cost over the past year, we were unable to offset the drop in prices, which was as much as 40%.”
Bosch Solar Energy lost a billion euros last year.
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