Berlin-based SOLON AG, one of Europe's biggest manufacturers of solar modules and photovoltaic systems, today laid the foundation stone for its new headquarters and new production site at the Adlershof technology center. It is investing around ?40 million in the construction of its new facilities which have a total floor area of 23,000 square meters (12,000m² for offices/meeting rooms, 11,000m² for production). SOLON AG is planning to move from its current site in Neukölln to Adlershof in early 2008.
"Our decision to continue running our global operations out of Berlin" said Thomas Krupke, CEO of SOLON AG, "was linked to our commitment to Berlin as a business location." Harald Wolf, Berlin's Senator for Economics, who welcomed numerous guests from business and politics to the foundation-laying ceremony, declared "With the current debate about climate change in mind, this foundation stone in the innovation-driven environment of Adlershof will become another important milestone on Berlin's journey toward its role as a center for the high-tech industries of the future."
As it relocates in the course of the coming year, SOLON AG will increase its workforce in Berlin from the current total of 250 to around 400. In addition, Global Solar Energy, the US company in which SOLON AG is a shareholder, will create another 100 new jobs in the architecturally stunning, futuristic new building. SOLON AG's production capacity at its new site will be 50 megawatts a year, almost double that of its old plant. Global Solar Energy is to set up a facility with an output of around 30 megawatts for producing highly innovative thin-film solar cells.
SOLON AG is a leading company in the field of renewable energies but its new building also sets new standards in energy management. An innovative energy and air conditioning concept, developed by Prof. M. Norbert Fisch, director of the Institute for Building and Solar Technology (IGS) at the Technical University of Braunschweig and head of EGSplan GmbH, Stuttgart, combines minimizing energy consumption with the use of renewable energy sources. It's good news for air quality in Berlin, because production at SOLON AG's site is CO2-free and it also uses a quarter of the energy consumed by a conventional industrial plant of a similar size.
"Our decision to continue running our global operations out of Berlin" said Thomas Krupke, CEO of SOLON AG, "was linked to our commitment to Berlin as a business location." Harald Wolf, Berlin's Senator for Economics, who welcomed numerous guests from business and politics to the foundation-laying ceremony, declared "With the current debate about climate change in mind, this foundation stone in the innovation-driven environment of Adlershof will become another important milestone on Berlin's journey toward its role as a center for the high-tech industries of the future."
As it relocates in the course of the coming year, SOLON AG will increase its workforce in Berlin from the current total of 250 to around 400. In addition, Global Solar Energy, the US company in which SOLON AG is a shareholder, will create another 100 new jobs in the architecturally stunning, futuristic new building. SOLON AG's production capacity at its new site will be 50 megawatts a year, almost double that of its old plant. Global Solar Energy is to set up a facility with an output of around 30 megawatts for producing highly innovative thin-film solar cells.
SOLON AG is a leading company in the field of renewable energies but its new building also sets new standards in energy management. An innovative energy and air conditioning concept, developed by Prof. M. Norbert Fisch, director of the Institute for Building and Solar Technology (IGS) at the Technical University of Braunschweig and head of EGSplan GmbH, Stuttgart, combines minimizing energy consumption with the use of renewable energy sources. It's good news for air quality in Berlin, because production at SOLON AG's site is CO2-free and it also uses a quarter of the energy consumed by a conventional industrial plant of a similar size.
