MAN Solar Millennium GmbH, a joint venture of MAN Ferrostaal AG and Solar Millennium AG, is developing into an autonomous technology engineering service provider in the solar thermal power sector. Solar Millennium will incorporate its subsidiary Flagsol GmbH, with around 60 employees and comprehensive know-how, in the joint venture.
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The company transfer will result in a complete provider for constructing solar thermal powerplants with over 120 employees and many years of experience.
The new joint venture will operate under the name Flagsol and have expertise in the fields of technology, development, construction and procurement for solar thermal mirror fields. With this profile it will occupy a prominent position in the market. Together, MAN Ferrostaal and the new Flagsol will in future offer all required services for the construction of solar thermal powerplants.
Dr. Klaus Lesker, Board member at MAN Ferrostaal, who is among other things responsible for the company’s solar business, regards this step as a positive development for the solar business at MAN Ferrostaal: “The transaction gives us direct access to solar thermal parabolic mirror technology. We will be the exclusive general contractor for the new Flagsol. At the same time, the new joint venture will also profit from this development because we have made our foreign companies, which are present in 60 countries, available to Flagsol as a sales platform.”
This company transfer will result in MAN Ferrostaal’s share in the joint venture being reduced from 50% to 25.1%; Solar Millennium will in future own a 74.9% share. MAN Ferrostaal and Solar Millennium will each provide one of the two managing directors. The effectiveness of the agreements is subject to the approval of the antitrust authority.
In 2002, Flagsol GmbH took over all the solar thermal know-how of Flabeg Solar International GmbH and has since made major developments in the field of solar thermal parabolic collectors. The company was responsible for the technical development of the powerplants Andasol 1, Andasol 2 and Andasol 3 in Spain, and implemented all the engineering for the solar field which covers an area of over 500,000 m².
MAN Ferrostaal AG
MAN Ferrostaal AG, Essen, is a global provider of industrial services in plant construction and engineering. As a general contractor in plant construction, the company offers project development, project management and financial planning for turnkey installations, including petrochemical plants, gas and solar power stations, oil and gas installations, biofuels and industrial plants.
MAN Ferrostaal operates as an independent sales and service partner for machine and systems manufacturers in the automotive, printing and packaging machinery, piping and marine construction sectors, and employs around 4,400 people in 60 different countries.
In 2008, its annual turnover amounted to 1.6 billion euros. 70% of the shares in MAN Ferrostaal AG are held by the International Petroleum Investment Company from Abu Dhabi (IPIC), while 30% are owned by MAN AG (Munich, Germany).
For more information, visit www.manferrostaal.com
Solar Millennium AG
Solar Millennium AG, Erlangen, is a global company in the renewables sector with a focus on solarthermal powerplants. Together with its subsidiaries, the company has specialised in parabolic trough powerplants, a proven and reliable technology in which the Group is taking a leading position globally.
All of the important business areas along the value-creation chain of solarthermal powerplants are covered – from the project development to the technology, the turnkey ready construction of the plants to operation and ownership of the powerplant.
Together with partners, Solar Millennium developed and realised Europe’s first parabolic trough powerplants in Spain. Further projects with an output of over 2,000 megawatts are at the planning stage worldwide. Regional focus is currently on Spain, USA, China and North Africa.
Furthermore, the company is pursuing the objective of achieving the marketability of “Blue Tower” technology to acquire hydrogenated product gas from the utilisation of regenerative feedstock and, in the long term, of solar updraft powerplants.
