New owners will further support research and development in solar energy technologies

Aug 30, 2012 13:21 GMT  ·  By

We just talked about how German renewables are presently going through some difficulties, and about how this country is to build 23 new coal plants it order to meet its citizens electricity demands. 

Not so surprisingly, the time has now come to report on one very interesting piece of news: Q-Cells, one of Germany's leading solar panels manufacturer, is to be bought by South Korean conglomerate Hanwha.

Apparently, Q-Cells started losing (rather than making) money after high officials decided to cut down on solar power subsidies, and after Chinese producers working in the same branch of the global energy industry established themselves as serious competitors.

Interestingly enough, about 15 German companies specializing in harvesting solar power have been forced to resort to similar measures in the past year alone, mostly because of the same reasons.

Although some of the people presently working at Q-Cells will quite likely lose their jobs as a result of this change in ownership, it seems that Hanwha has expressed its desire to interfere with Q-Cells' internal organization as little as possible.

Moreover, the latter will be able to continue its work on researching and developing PV solar panels.

The official press release discussing this purchase explains that Hanwha has plans to become a world leader for the photovoltaic industry, and that these future development plans are the ones which determined the South Korean conglomerate to keep most of Q-Cells former employees.

Henning Schorisch, one of the persons involved in overseeing this purchase, made a case of how, “In the current macroeconomic and political environment, which is extremely difficult for Q.CELLS, it is a great success that we managed to maintain not only research and development, but also the production capacities at the Bitterfeld-Wolfen site.”

Furthermore, “The successful sale would not have been possible, if people would have abandoned the company during these difficult times. I naturally regret all the more that it was not possible to take over everyone.”

From where we stand, the fact that Q-Cells will be able to continue its work on developing efficient PV solar panels is both praise- and noteworthy, as green energy sources play a major part in our quest for sustainability.