Photovoltech to boost capacity to 260MW

Tienen, Belgium's Photovoltech announced today that it plans to pump out more solar photovoltaic cells, building a new plant to increase production to 260 megawatts by the end of 2010.

Photovoltech is owned by France's Total (NYSE: TOT) and GDF Suez, and Belgium's Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center, or Imec. The company's photovoltaic cells are manufactured using technology developed at Imec.

Photovoltech is currently working toward boosting its production to 140 MW by the end of 2009, up from its current 80 MW capacity. Photovoltech announced plans to invest €45 million to raise its production capacity to 140 MW last November (see Photovoltech plans to boost solar production to 140MW).

The company didn't disclose the cost of its latest production plans, but said the new plant will go up in Tienen, on the same site as its current facility.

In July, Photovoltech signed a long-term supply agreement for silicon wafers with Xinyu, China-based LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK).

At the time, Johan Nijs, general manager of Photovoltech, said, "As we work to achieve our capacity expansion and growth goals to meet the increasing demands of the photovoltaic market in the coming years, we are very pleased to have LDK Solar as a long-term partner and look forward to their supply, in order to secure an important part of our wafer needs."

Under that 10-year deal, LDK will deliver 400 MW of multicrystalline silicon solar wafers to Photovoltech starting in 2009 and running through 2018.