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Energy or you and meHow we make solar panels to harness the suns abundant power
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Energy crisis
Lies power plant
RETURNING TO THE SUN
Over the past two centuries, humans learned to harness ossil uels on a vast scale to power an industrialrevolution. This quantum advance in machine automation, mass production and labor division drove unparalleledimprovements in the health, economics and comorts o citizens o industrialized nations.
But today, the benets come at great, unpaid environmental costs. Fossil uels cannot continue to be humanitysprimary source o energy. Its time or an energy oundation in harmony with the planet. Its time or a solarrevolution.
Perpetually renewing power rom the sun has ueled lie on Earth since its rst spark. From cellular to mammalianorms, the sun has supplied a critical ingredient in the recipe or living beings. More practically, humans have reliedon solar power to warm water, dry clothes and prepare ood as ar as historys record reaches.
The sun emits so much energy that solar experts compete to put the output in terms we can grasp. Heres justone: Earth receives enough solar radiation in an hour to supply the planets electrical needs or a year.
Environmental ills and climate change pose global crises
or our planet. Any answer to these problems must be
powerul. Fortunately, we need only tap the power source
o lies history or answers: the sun and its ample energy.
Dr.-Ing. E. h. Frank Asbeck, SolarWorld chairman and CEO
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Gathering the sun s bounty
Now people are re-tapping their roots in a solar world by using panels o photovoltaic (PV) cells to generate powerrom the suns rays. As reliable as the sun itsel, the technology is simple and clean. Cells are built on waers osilicon made rom ordinary sand and quartz. Assembled into solar panels and exposed to the sun, the cells directlyconvert light into electricity without polluting emissions, resource depletion or moving parts.
SolarWorld, extraordinary because it undertakes all phases o PV manuacturing and makes no other products,builds panels in our steps, starting with sand and ending with sun.
Turn the page to begin the story behind SolarWorlds core mission to put the technology to work or homesand businesses around the world.
O the 92 elements, silicon (Si) is the Earthmost prevalent semiconductor and
second most common element o any kinater oxygen. Appearing in silicon oxidessuch as sand (silica), quartz, rock crystal,amethyst, agate, int, jasper and opal, silicon makes up about a quarter, by weight,the Earths crust. Photovoltaic manuactuing starts with polysilicon, a renement osilicon materials.
Photovoltaic. The word photovoltaic comrom the words photo, meaning light, andvolt, meaning electricity. In short, the termPV means electricity rom light.
PV FACT
WORD TO KNOW
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ROOTS OF A RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCE
1970s1960s1950s
1954 Bell Labs announces inven-tion o the rst modern siliconsolar cells, with energy-conversioneciency o about 6 percent.
1955 Western Electric licencescommercial solar cell technolo-gies.
1957 AT&T employees GeraldL. Pearson, Daryl M. Chapin andCalvin S. Fuller receive patentUS2780765, Solar EnergyConverting Apparatus.
1958 Hofman Electronics-
Semiconductor Division creates9%-ecient solar cells.
Vanguard 1, the rst solar-po-wered satellite, is launched with.1 watt solar panel.
1960 Hofman Electronicscreates a 14%-ecient solar cell.
1961 United Nations stages
Solar Energy in the DevelopingWorld conerence.
1962 The Telstar communica-tions satellite is powered bysolar cells.
1963 Viable photovoltaic panel isproduced out o silicon solar cells.
1964 Yale University Presspublishes Farrington Daniels
landmark book, Direct Use othe Suns Energy.
1967 Soyuz 1 becomes rstmanned spacecrat using solar.
1973 Solar cells power Skylab,the rst U.S. space station.
1974 A home in New Mexico is
the worlds rst to be poweredonly by solar and wind energy.
1975 Engineer and entrepreneurBill Yerkes creates Solar Technolo-gy International.
1977 Yerkes sells his manuactu-ring startup to Atlantic RicheldCo., orming ARCO Solar, but heremains president.
1979 In Camarillo, Cali., ARCOSolar dedicates worlds largest PVactory to making silicon crystalingots, waers, photovoltaic cellsand panels.
World annual PV array production (MWp)
The history o the solar industry and SolarWorld are intermixed,
each with one oot squarely positioned in the United States and the
other in Germany the two markets that have led the industrys
development. In the U.S., SolarWorld began as ARCO Solar. Siemens
and Shell then owned the unit beore SolarWorld acquired it.
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Pioneering relativity theorist Albert Einstein won theNobel Prize in 1921 but not or his renowned relativit
equation E=mc. The prize actually celebrated his 1905discovery o exactly how light caused what was thencalled the photoelectric efect essentially, photovoltaics. Today, SolarWorld issues its annual Einstein Awardto honor PV researchers.
Photon: A photon is neither a wave nor a particle, butinstead a packet o light energy. Solar radiation arriveson the surace o photovoltaic cells in the orm o photons, providing the main energy that activates cells to
produce electricity.
PV FACT
WORD TO KNOW
2000s1990s1980s0
10
1,0
10
10
1990 Siemens acquires ARCOSolar, orming Siemens Solar.
1996 Siemens Solar celebrates
100 MW o installed power rompanels made in Camarillo.
1997 Siemens becomes rstcompany to ofer 25-yearwarranty.
1998 SolarWorld orms as start-up business, entering Germanysburgeoning solar market.
1999 Germany requires utilities
to pay eed-in tarifs at xedpremium rates to owners o solarsystems or power contributedinto grid.
2002 Royal Dutch Shell ac-quires Siemens Solar, creatingShell Solar.
2006 SolarWorld aquiresShell Solar.
2007 Investors begin ofe-ring ree installation in returnor long-term power purchaseagreements (PPAs), whichbecome common nancingarrangements.
2008 SolarWorld opens480,000-square-oot plant
in Hillsboro, investing $500million to establish 500 MWo annual capacity and 1,000employees there.
Yellow = SolarWorldsU.S. lineage
1980 ARCO Solar becomes rstcompany to produce more than 1megawatt o PV panels in one year.
A 105.6-kW system is dedicated atNatural Bridges National Monu-ment in Utah, using panels o ARCOSolar, Motorola and Spectrolab.
1982 ARCO Solar commissionsworlds rst 1 MW grid-connected PVinstallation in Hisperia, Cali., usingpanels on 108 dual-axis trackers.
1983 Worldwide photovoltaic pro-duction exceeds 20 MW and sales
surpass $250 million.
1985 Australias University o NewSouth Wales creates silicon cellswith 20% eciency in laboratory.
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FROM SAND TO SOLAR PANEL
The journey that starts with silicon and ends
with a large-scale solar acility is long, with
many stops along the way. As one o the largest
solar companies in the world, SolarWorld attach-
es great importance to the highest quality
at every stage o production.
Silicon Solar waer
Silicon is the starting point o our solar production cycle.It is extracted rom sand, which is made up primarily osilicon dioxide. As the second most common elemento the earths crust, there is an almost endless supply.
In the second production step, highly pure siliconorms into crystal structure at 2,500 degrees Fah-renheit and it then hardens. The crystallized siliconis then shaped into rectangular columns. These co-lumns are cut into extremely thin slices, or waers,using state-o-the-art wire-cutting technology.Ater cleaning and thorough nal testing, the mo-nocrystalline and polycrystalline waers orm thebasis or the production o solar cells.
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Solar cells Solar panel
The waers are urther processed into solar cells in thethird production step. They orm the basic element othe resulting solar panels. The cells already possess allo the technical attributes necessary to generateelectricity rom sunlight. Positive and negativecharge carriers are released in the cells throughlight radiation, causing electrical current (directcurrent) to ow.
Solar cells are merged into larger units the panels in panel production. They are ramed and wea-
ther-prooed. The solar energy panels are nalproducts, ready to generate power. Sunlight isconverted into electrical energy in the panels. Thedirect current produced this way is converted toalternating current by a device called an inverter sothat it can be ed into the utility grid or, i applica-ble, straight into the house.
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GROWING CRYSTAL FROM ROCK
Charging MeltingThe magic starts with about 250 pounds o polysiliconrocks careully stacked in a quartz crucible. The onlyother ingredient is a silicon disk impregnated with atiny amount o boron. The addition o the boron do-pant ensures that the resulting crystal will bear a pos-itive potential electrical orientation. The crucible isencased within thick walls o insulating graphite andlocked inside a cylindrical urnace.
As the crystal-growing urnace heats up to tempe-ratures ranging around 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit,its silicon contents liquey into a shimmering melt.Once computerized monitors register the righttemperature and atmospheric conditions, thealchemy begins. A silicon seed crystal, hung rom anarrow cable attached to a rotary device atop theurnace, is slowly lowered into the melt.
In its monocrystalline process, SolarWorld heats and melts poly-
silicon rock until it orms a white-hot liquid, then re-solidies
the molten silicon into a single giant crystal in which all atoms
are perectly aligned in a desired structure and orientation.
Quartzcrucible
Steel urnaceencasementenvelopinggraphiteinsulation
Polysiliconrock withboron-dopedsilicon disk
Polysilicon
Seed
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The method that SolarWorlduses in the United States to gro
silicon crystal is known as Cz(pronounced CEE-ZEE). Cz is anabbreviation or the Czochral-ski process, named ater Polishscientist Jan Czochralski, whodiscovered the method in 1916as he researched crystallizationrates o metals.
Crystal: A crystal is a solid withmolecular building blocks, suchatoms or ions, that have arrangthemselves in an identically re-peating pattern along all threespatial dimensions.
PV FACT
WORD TO KNOW
Growing CoolingThe crucible starts to turn, and the seed crystalbegins to rotate in the opposite direction. Thesilicon melt reezes onto the seed crystal, matchingthe seeds crystalline structure. The crystal grows,the cable and seed slowly ascend, and the crystalelongates at a controlled diameter. As the growthdepletes the silicon melt, the crucible also rises.
Flash orward about 3 days since the cruciblewas charged with polysilicon: Ater hours o cool-ing to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit, the urnacehood and shat lit away rom the crucible encase-ment to reveal a completed cylindrical crystal,ready to move to the second step and next pro-duction room.
Crystalemergingrom melt
Crystalmeasuring8 inches wideand about5 eet long
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CUTTING CRYSTAL INTO WAFERS
Cutting Squaring
First, a saw cuts of the crystals so-called top and tail,so that a crystal o uniorm width remains. Typically,waering saws draw thin wire bearing a liquid abrasiveacross the crystals surace. (Above, a machine moun-ted with a giant donutlike steel blade does the cutting.)Wire saws also cut the crystal into ingots measuring2 eet long. Steel holders are mounted on one end othese ingots or the next step.
Mounted ingots are placed standing on end ina rack bearing 16 at a time inside another wire-slicing machine. There, wire running in a latticeconguration descends on the ingots to shear ofour rounded segments, leaving at sides. The re-sult: The ingots now have a square cross-section,except or still-rounded corners.
A silicon crystal must change shape several times beore it
winds up as the precisely calibrated waers that orm the
oundations o photovoltaic cells.
Crystal ingot
Saw wire
Ingots standing onend beneath wirelattice used tosquare them
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Waering saws use spools o wto carry the mineral abrasive si
con carbide, efectively orminga miniscule strand o sandpapeThe spools bear wire measurinabout 400 miles long. Stretcheout rom SolarWorlds U.S.headquarters in Hillsboro, Ore.the wire would reach roughly tMissoula, Mont.
Silicon carbide: Silicon carbide(SiC), silicon bonded with carbois another member o the silicoamily o materials used in the industry. It is a common abrasivin many industries, used in everthing rom grinding to sandblasing. At SolarWorld, crushed SiC
is mixed into a water slurry andapplied to saw wires. Siliconcarbide, not wire, actually doesthe cutting.
PV FACT
WORD TO KNOW
Slicing
The next wire saw is more intricate yet. A wire winding hundreds o timesbetween two cylindrical drums orms a web o parallel, tightly spaced seg-ments. As the wire unspools through the machine, ingots mounted side-ways on glass and metal holders are pressed two at a time through the wireweb, slicing them into the thickness o slim business cards. Each millimetero crystal yields about 2 waers. Detached rom their holders, the waersare loaded into carriers, or boats, or transport to the next step.
About 100 waers twithin a transportcarrier, or boat
Saw wire
6
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CONVERTING WAFERS INTO CELLS
Texturing Difusing
In the only phase requiring a designated clean room, aseries o intricate chemical and heat treatments con-verts the blank, grey waers into productive, blue cells.
A so-called texture etch, or instance, removes a tiny la-yer o silicon, relying on the underlying crystal structureto reveal an irregular pattern o pyramids. The suraceo pyramids so small theyre invisible to the naked eye absorbs more light.
Next, waers are moved in cartridges into long, cy-lindrical, oven-like chambers in which phosphorusis difused into a thin layer o the waer surace.
The molecular-level impregnation occurs as thewaer surace is exposed to phosphorus gas at ahigh heat, a step that gives the surace a negativepotential electrical orientation. The combinationo that layer and the boron-doped layer below cre-ates a positive-negative, or P/N, junction a criti-cal partition in the unctioning o a PV cell.
At this point, a waer is no more capable o producing electricity
than a sliver o river rock. The waer is the main building block o
a PV cell, but so ar its only notable characteristics are its crystal
structure and positive potential orientation. All o that changes in
the third, multistep, cell-production phase o PV manuacturing.
Chemical bath
Clean suits ensure asterile environment
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In the PV and semiconductorindustries, the word tool has
a special meaning. Instead oreerring to an implement thatcan be applied to a manuactuing mechanism, tools in theseelds reer to entire machinesor assembly lines that perorma step or series o steps. In bothindustries, tools are highly automated so that most workers aremployed to install, netune aoperate the tools, rather than ling or moving product. Spider-devices lit and move waers ancells on and of conveyor belts
multiple tests along their journrom waer to cell.
Micron: In cell production,manuacturing steps occur indimensions measured in microIn the metric system, a micron ione millionth o a meter, or onethousandth o a millimeter. For
reerence, a human hair measuabout 100 microns across.
PV FACT
WORD TO KNOW
Coating Printing
The burgeoning, still-grey cells move in trays intoheavy vacuum chambers where blue-purple sili-con nitride is deposited onto their tops. The coa-ting with silicon nitride yet another member othe silicon amily o materials is designed to re-duce reection even urther in the energy-denseblue end o the light spectrum. It leaves the cellswith their nal, dark color.
Now, the cells can optimally gather photons andproduce electricity. They lack, however, any me-chanism to collect and orward the power. So, ina series o silkscreen-like steps, metals are printedon both sides o the cell, adding pin-stripe n-gers and bus-bar circuitry. A unctioning cell isborn only sunshine is needed to produce electricity.
Drying oven
Waer
Printing template
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STRINGING CELLS INTO PANELS
Soldering and laminating Framing
At SolarWorld, panel manuacturing is a highly auto-mated process, relying on robust steel robotics to un-dertake the increasingly heavy liting o assemblinglightweight PV cells into panels weighing around 45pounds apiece. Each robotic tool works within a saetyence that, by design, prevents human access. First, cellsare soldered together into strings o 10, using an over-under-over-under pattern o metal connectors to linkthe cells. Six strings are laid out to orm a rectangularmatrix o 60 cells. Each matrix is laminated onto specialsolar glass.
To become a solar panel, however, each laminaterequires not only a rame to provide protectionagainst weather and other impacts but also ajunction box to enable connections among panelsor with an inverter-bound conduit. Robots axthose, too.
Clean suits ensure asterile environment
Cell string
Each phase o production depends on processes with favors all
their own. Careul control o heating and cooling dominates
crystal growing. Waering employs abrasion and cutting. Cell
production concentrates on chemistry. Any actory process
would be incomplete without a nal assembly step, and in
PV such a step is known as panel assembly, or moduling.
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Inspecting and shipping
Careul cleaning and inspection provide nal touchesbeore each solar panel can be boxed or delivery tohomes and businesses. However, inspection doesnot only take place at the end o the productionline. Digitized and automated checks take place atkey steps rom silicon crystallization through panelassembly, and human inspection o each and everycell and panel.
SolarWorld is a manuacturer. Isells Sunmodule solar panels
mostly through distributors,integrators and contractors. Buthe company also sells Sunkitssystems congurations opanels, inverter and parts thatinclude everything that licenseelectrical contractors need orspecic projects at specic locations. SolarWorld pioneered thapproach in the 1990s.
Module: Within the industry,solar panels are called modulesbecause they link together evenand interchangeably use electrcal connectors to orm a circuitwithin an array, with a buildingor with a utility grid. To make amodule, cell-matrix laminants amounted into sturdy aluminumrames. The resulting module isrobust enough to withstand 50mph hailstone impacts and upto 112 pounds per square oot owind or snow load.
WORD TO KNOW
PV FACT
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HOW A PV CELL MAKES ELECTRICITY
Under the sun, a photovoltaic cell acts as a photosensitive
diode that instantaneously converts light but not heat
into electricity.
Cellcutaway
Light-absorbing layer
Metal contact
N (negative type)
P (positive type)
P/N juction
Metal back
Positive doping Negative doping
(1) Recall that in the crystallization step asmall amount o the dopant boron wasadded to the polysilicon chunks beorethey were melted. Boron lacks one elec-tron and thereore takes on an electronrom silicon as an acceptor. Because theelectron is missing, leaving an electronhole, the semiconductor becomes p-con-ductive (positive-conductive).
(2) Remember that in cell production phosphorus wasapplied to those layers o the silicon waer closest tothe surace. This dopant, as compared with silicon,has one extra electron, which it can easily release.Thus the silicon becomes n-conductive (negative-conductive).
1
2
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Electron
PhotonA
B
C D
E
It takes all kinds o workers toproduce PV, ranging rom doc-
toral engineers troubleshootinarcane problems to entry-levelmachine operators learning baprocess steps. Within SolarWorthe our stages o production ras semi-autonomous but interpendent actories, all with teamo production engineers, maintnance engineers, techniciansand operators.
Conversion eciency: Thismeasure gauges the percentago solar (light) power reaching apanel that is converted into electrical power. Conventional cellsnow range in the high percentateens. Theoretical and labora-tory conversion rates typicallyare much higher than rates rommass production.
PV FACT
WORD TO KNOW
Cell layers Sun activation
The top, phosphorus-difused silicon layerthereore carries ree electrons unan-chored particles with negative charges.The thicker, boron-doped bottom layercontains holes, or absences o electrons,that also can move reely. In efect, precisemanuacturing has instilled an electronicimbalance between the two layers.
A) Photons bombard and penetrate the cell.
B) They activate electrons, knocking them loose in bothsilicon layers.
C) Some electrons in the bottom layer sling-shot to thetop o the cell.
D) These electrons ow into metal contacts as electricity,moving into a circuit throughout a 60-cell panel.
E) Electrons ow back into the cell via a solid contactlayer at the bottom, creating a closed loop or circuit.
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Powering homes and businesses
Current leaving a panel, or array o panels, passes through a wire conduit leading to aninverter. These devices, which are shaped like suitcases and come in various sizes, invertdirect current, which ows with a xed current and voltage, into alternating current,
which ows with oscillating current and voltage. Appliances worldwide operate on AC.
From the inverter, the solar-generated power eeds into circuitry o a household, businessor power plant and onto the regions electrical grid. A remote, or independent, power sy-stem also can orm a sel-contained circuit without connecting to the grid. The of-gridsystem, however, requires batteries to store power or times, such as night, when panelsdo not capture enough light energy rom the sun.
Inverter
PV panels
InverterFuse boxElectrical grid Electrical devices (TV etc.)
SOAK UP THE SAVINGS
The sun provides abundant clean energy every single day,
even when its cloudy and it never sends a bill. The sunprovides enough energy to serve the entire worlds energy
needs hundreds o times over.
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Environmental benets
Solar panels reduce the amount o electricity coming rom ossil uels by supplying your home with clean, renewableenergy rom the sun. By providing more energy and lasting longer than other brands, SolarWorld Sunmodule pa-nels are the best choice or cutting your carbon ootprint down to size while maintaining a comortable liestyle.
SolarWorld Sunmodule panels are made rom pure silicon, glass and aluminum. Our manuacturing processesavoid or minimize the use o toxic materials such as cadmium and arsenic, which are used in many low-grade thinlm panels. SolarWorld actories strive to continuously improve these processes and lead the industry in sustai-nable manuacturing practices.
SolarWorld pioneered the high-yield process o recapturing the main components o silicon, glass and aluminumso that at the end o their useul lives Sunmodules can be reprocessed or reuse, instead o relegated to landlls.For products that can last more than 30 years, thats thinking ahead.
* CO emissions avoided over 25 ye94 tons* Equivalent miles not driven:
306,376* Equivalent trees planted:
1.6 acres* Based on a 3 kilowatt system
in Southern California.
GOOD FORTHE PLANET
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Solar energys present
YOU ENTER THE EQUATION
Grid parity the point where energy costs the same whether rom solar technology or ossil uels has arrived inmany U.S. markets. Its about time, too. Though ossils have gotten us where we are today, they also have causedenormous environmental harms. The time has arrived to use slivers o rock silicon to reliably produce electricityor decades rather than burning up tons o rock and oil extracted rom the Earth just one time.
To promote energy market competition, various government and nonprot agencies ofer an array o incentivesor solar purchases. However, the cost o solar has already allen so much that in some markets, those agenciesare starting to phase out some incentives.
PV technology is largely a U.S.
original. But oreign ingenuity has
grasped the industrys leadership
by applying market mechanisms
that jumpstart higher investment
returns. Creating higher demand,
these policies build economies o
scale that orce down pricing. Butit takes people you to make
choices or a better planet. Now
the U.S. is reawakening to the
promise o solar energy.
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Solar market incentives
Incentives vary among nations, states and even cities, but they typically all into these categories:
Rebates: Some organizations distribute outright reimbursements or a portion o system costs.
Tax incentives: The U.S. government and several states may ofer investment tax credits or accounting provisionsallowing extraordinary terms or asset depreciation. On Jan. 1, 2009, or instance, the ederal government remo-ved a $2,000 cap on a 30 percent credit or residential systems.
Net metering: This alternative to eed-in tarifs allows solar power producers to generate and use power with thesame pricing and according to a single meter. When a home system, or instance, makes more power than it uses,its meter rolls backward.
Feed-in tarifs: Dozens o countries have implemented eed-in tarif systems set premium rates that utilitiesare required to pay or power rom solar systems. The rates remain xed or a set number o years, perhaps 20. Apower producer, such as a homeowner or business, separately pays normal market rates or power rom the grid.
So how much power does a typical PV system produce and at what cost? A modes
rootop system or a home might combin1.5-3 kW in panels and produce the equivalent o about one-third o the homes powneeds. In some locations, the ultimatecosts to the system owners guring inall incentives might amount to 30 centson the dollar. In that case, a hypotheticalsystem priced at $25,000 actually wouldcost about $7,500. Returns on investment many cases exceed average typical intereon certicates o deposit.
Falling solar prices will cross rising prices of fossil fuels
With government incentives, then without, rising solar demand and allingunit pricing are leading to grid parity.
Insolation: Sunlight varies by region.Insolation is a measure o the solar radia-tion energy in a given region. It is usuallyexpressed as the intensity o light energyper unit o land area. As a whole, the U.S.,especially the sunny Southwest and Souteast, ofers strong insolation. By compari-son, Germany, the PV industrys leader, gelittle better sun than Alaska.
PV FACT
WORD TO KNOW
Priceperwatt
NowTime
Solar withincentives
Solar
Fossil fuels
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FOR ROOFTOPS AND BEYOND
These days, PV technology is extend-
ing beyond rootops into locations that
have never known the benets o
electricity. As on-grid applications
bring cleaner power to wired homes,
so, too, do of-grid systems empower
those without electric rerigeration and
lighting. Along the way, SolarWorldhas led the world industry in rural elec-
trication and sustainable practices.
Anywhere theres sky
While rootop systems provide countless homes and businesses with power right where they most need it, suchinstallations are ar rom the only kinds o PV projects harnessing photons.
Ground-mountedsystems make sensewhere roos are una-vailable or inadequate.Panels are mounted onracks anchored into theground.
Canopy systems canprovide shelter andproduce power in park-ing lots and exteriorcorridors.
Utility-scale systemscome in a variety odimensions, but all pro-duce enough electricityto power manybuildings.
Tracker systems in-crease their outputpower by moving toollow the suns path.
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Recycling and reusing A global vision
SolarWorld has led the global PV industry in app-lying principles o sustainability.
Internally, SolarWorld uses residual and remnantsilicon let in crucible bottoms or cut rom ingots
to reorm crystal, and it strives in every imaginabledirection to divert waste leaving its operations plastic packaging, spent wire, even cofee cups into second or new uses.
Externally, SolarWorld pioneered processes andpractices or ofering crystalline silicon photo-voltaic recycling and helped spur the industry todevelop recycling programs. The company acceptsany returns o SolarWorld solar panels that other-wise might be discarded. Then, the panels under-go a high-yield process o recovering constituentmaterials or reuse.
SolarWorlds Solar2World program takes aim atthe 2 billion people on the planet who go withoutelectricity, a number that promises to rise withpopulation growth. Working with local partners,the company donates its panels into rural electri-
cation projects in some o the worlds poorestareas. With SolarWorlds expansion in the UnitedStates, the Solar2World program there ocuses onLatin America.
Sustainable develop-
ment is designed to lea
to a situation where
present generations ca
satisy their own needs
without jeopardizing
the potential needs o
uture generations.
Dr.-Ing. E. h. Frank Asbeck,SolarWorld chairman and CEO
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Locations:
SolarWorld Americas(Sales and marketing forUSA, Canada, and South andCentral America)4650 Adohr LaneCamarillo, CA 93012Phone: +1 805 388 6200Fax: +1 805 388 [email protected]
SolarWorld Industries America(U.S. headquarters)25300 NW Evergreen RoadHillsboro, OR 97124Phone: +1 503 844 3400Fax: +1 503 844 [email protected]
Benets at a glance
> World-class qualitySolarWorld produces the highest-quality solar panels, manuacturing according to U.S. and German quality standards inully automated ISO 19001 and 14001 actories.
> SolarWorld Plus sortingPlus-sorting guarantees the highest system eciency. Only the panels that achieve the desig nated nominalperormance or more in perormance tests are dispatched.
> 25-year linear perormance guarantee and 10-year product warranty*In addition to a 10-year product warranty, SolarWorld provides a 25-year perormance guarantee that ensures anactual perormance o at least 97 percent o the nominal power in the rst year and an annual decrease o not morethan 0.7 percent in each o the next 24 years.
> An experienced industry leaderWith more than 35 years o experience in of-grid solar applications, SolarWorld delivers top products and technicalexperience at the highest levels. SolarWorld solar panels are installed in more than 100,000 telecommunications andindustrial systems worldwide. No one else comes close.
* in accordance with the SolarWorld service certicate valid at the time o purchase | www.solarworld-usa.com/warranty
