The Senegalese solar power company SPEC is establishing the first solar panel factory in West Africa, with the support of 3S Modultec
The founders of the Senegalese solar company SPEC will be making the vision of West Africa’s first solar panel factory come true in the next few weeks. The local team is being supported by solar experts from 3S Modultec, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Meyer Burger Technology AG (quoted on the SIX Swiss Exchange: ticker code MBTN). The Swiss Meyer Burger Technology Group is continuing its international expansion with the sale of the first integrated production line to Africa and its cooperation with SPEC.
Due to its geographical location and the lack of an extensive grid, Africa offers outstanding potential for generating solar power. From June 2011, SPEC in Dakar will be producing high-quality solar panels, certified by the German agency TÜV Rhineland, for African markets.Mamadou Saliou Sow, the CEO of SPEC, is convinced that his company has found the right partner in 3S Modultec. “The production line is fully aligned with our specific requirements and we shall benefit from 3S’s enormous process expertise and experience in solar panel production. This is extremely important to us as newcomers to the industry. With 3S’s support, we can offer our customers consistently high-quality products.”
The 15MW production line for solar panels, which can be expanded to 25 MW, has been sold to SPEC along with the transfer of skills, a comprehensive training package, certification of the panels to be produced and a service and maintenance contract. Experts from 3S are supporting the local SPEC team on site and monitoring the Senegalese throughout the planning, ramp-up, production launch and certification phases. The production concept has been specifically matched to local conditions and customer requirements in Africa. The production line combines automated and semi-automatic production stages, with optimum integration of manual work.
