News

August 09, 2006

Chinese Company ReneSola Brings Manufacture Of Solar Wafers To AIM

By Rue Swabey

China-based ReneSola made its début on London’s AIM yesterday. It has raised US$46million net of costs valuing it at US$150million. The company, which manufactures solar wafers from recycled silicon and broken wafer, is a beneficiary of the current silicon shortage. While utilisation in the solar cell manufacturing industry is falling given raw material constraints, ReneSola is facing capacity constraints. The company will use the bulk of the funds raised to purchase furnaces and slicers which will increase its capacity from 48MW to 80MW and 125MW by December 2006 and 2007, respectively. ReneSola, which was founded in 2005, was profitable in its first year of operations when it reported a net profit of US$574,000 on turnover of US$6.2million. Profits in the first quarter of 2006 jumped to US$1.4million on turnover of US$6.9millon.

ReneSola was founded by a group of professionals with significant experience in the solar sector. Several of them had previously worked together producing solar modules. During this period they developed extensive contacts within the solar industry which proved invaluable when they shifted their business focus to wafer production. ReneSola uses proprietary technology to transform silicon scrap into feedstock suitable for the production of solar wafers. The process is fairly labour intensive as...