AEG builds new PV manufacturing facility in South Africa

The company said the facility, which will manufacture its new Protect PV630 inverter, is part of its increased investment plan targeting Africa, India and Germany. "Protect PV.630 now represents the next milestone in the range of industrial inverters for multi-megawatt PV power plants," the company said in a statement.

Speaking to PV magazine, AEG's director for corporate communications, Claire Pairault said the new facility will be added to the current manufacturing plant, which produces the company's Protect PV 5000 inverter. While she would not divulge the investment amount, Pairault said that the new facility will be funded from the company's earnings. "It will manufacture central solar inverters and also monitoring systems," she said, adding that the facility will have an annual capacity of 200 megawatts.

The target market for the new product is primarily South Africa, however AEG will use the country as base to enter other African markets. Pairault said the recent approval of nine new photovoltaic projects by South Africa's Department of Energy with an additional 417 MW, is a major boost to the company's investment plan for Africa, Photovoltaics (PV) Magazine Online says.

Read the full article on www.pv-magazine.com.