Swiss Wafers, Sunways sign solar-wafer deal

Switzerland-based Swiss Wafers AG has signed a multi-year deal to supply Konstanz, Germany's Sunways AG with silicon wafers that will be used to manufacture 115 megawatts of solar cells.

Financial terms of the contract were not released.

Swiss Wafers plans to deliver the wafers from January 2009 through 2016.

Sunways officials said the contract will help them establish a secure supply of raw materials.

Sunways currently has a production capacity of 46 MW but plans to expand that to 116 MW by the end of this year.

Swiss Wafers manufactures silicon raw material to mono- and multi-crystalline silicon wafers. The company had a production capacity of 50 megawatt-peak in 2006 but had plans to expand to 180 MWp annually, according to its Web site. The company has about 40 employees.

In September, Seoul-based DC Chemical reportedly signed a deal to supply polysilicon to Swiss Wafers (see Suntech inks $750M silicon agreement with DC Chemical).