PV roof tile : Saint-Gobain acquires Solarwood Technologies
Building on the 30% equity stake already held in its industrial partner, Solarwood Technologies, the Saint-Gobain Group has just bought up the remaining 70% of shares.
With its 60-strong team, Solarwood Technologies manufactures PV roof tiles at its Foetz facility in Luxemburg. This plant has an annual capacity of 15MW, i.e. the energy required to supply 5,000 individual homes on an annual basis. To support the sales growth of Saint-Gobain Solar Systems in Europe, and France in particular, its production output will be increased to 30MW.
Solarwood Technologies is today Saint-Gobain Solar Systems' main PV roof tiles supplier. Its solar roofing product portfolio boasts the French market's leading PV tiles: SG Solar Sunlap® and SG Solar Sunstyle® (recent prizewinner at the Paris trade show, Batimat). Easy to mount, these products offer exceptional style and building-integrated quality. Not only do they meet all current building-integration criteria in France, entitling owners to the highest electricity buy-back rates, but they shall continue to do so when tighter legislation measures come into force from 2011.
As Benoît Richard, Managing Director of Saint-Gobain Solar Systems, points out: "We're expanding fast in France right now and looking to build another PV tile plant on a second site currently under selection which should be up and running in the second half of 2010".
Solarwood Technologies also markets PV systems in Luxemburg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, forming in this way a sound growth base for the Saint-Gobain Solar Systems division in these countries.
