Renewable Energy Corp., a Norwegian solar energy company said Oct. 26 it plans to invest more than 3.0 billion euro (US$4.31 billion) building a manufacturing plant in Singapore to produce solar wafers, cells and modules.
The company said the project has the potential of becoming the world's biggest complex of its kind with a production capacity of up to 1.5 gigawatts of energy.
"Depending on the final capacity and site development, total investments in the Singapore site may exceed 3.0 billion euro within the next five years and the total number of employees could be around 3,000 people," REC said. "The development of this site will enable us to continue expanding in a cost-efficient manner and will support REC's ambitious cost target," added REC president and chief executive Erik Thorsen.
EDB managing director Ko Kheng Hwa said the project is envisaged to be the world's biggest fully integrated solar manufacturing complex. "When fully developed, the complex could produce up to 1.5 GW of such products a year. For comparison, the total output worldwide last year was about 2.0 GW," Ko said.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007
