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Camarillo, Calif., April 7, 2010 – The SolarWorld group has installed new sales leadership and staff and implemented the market’s most robust performance assurances to position the sales operation for the company’s steep rise in U.S. manufacturing.
Kevin Kilkelly has rounded out his first quarter as president of the group’s sales and marketing operation for the Americas by creating additional green sales and sales-support jobs, enabling the company to further segment the U.S. market to speed growth of installation and distribution networks. Mr. Kilkelly also has adopted the strongest U.S. product protections.
Beginning with modules installed in 2010, SolarWorld is the first manufacturer to offer a linear performance guarantee for 25 years. Competitors offer staggered guarantees -- for instance, 90 percent of nominal output for 10 years, then 80 percent the next year onward. SolarWorld’s guarantee covers 97 percent the first year, then decreases only 0.7 percent each year thereafter.
In parallel, the company is offering a plus-sorting method to ensure customers receive the watts they expect. Every module is flash-tested to determine peak rated power, and the rating accounts for initial light-induced degradation. Based on this rating, SolarWorld, unlike competitors, delivers only modules that offer output greater than or equal to nameplate rated power. Factory flash reports accompany every order.
“As the nation’s pioneering leader in high-quality photovoltaic products, we must constantly innovate ways for our sales operation to keep pace with the ever-increasing performance and reliability of our products,” Mr. Kilkelly said. “These steps put us further ahead of the pack.”
SolarWorld, already the largest and most experienced U.S. manufacturer of solar power technology, is expanding its U.S. operations to 500 MW of annual production capacity this year.
About the SolarWorld group
The SolarWorld group (ISIN: DE0005108401) is a worldwide leader in offering brand-name, high-quality, crystalline solar-power technology. Its strength is its fully integrated solar production. From silicon as the raw material through wafers, cells and modules all the way to turn-key solar systems, including recycling, the group combines all stages of the solar value chain. The central business activity is selling quality modules into the installation and distribution trades and crystalline wafers to the international solar cell industry. Group headquarters are located in Bonn, Germany. Production sites are to be found in Germany, the United States and South Korea. The group’s largest production facilities operate in Freiberg, Germany and Hillsboro in the U.S. state of Oregon. Sustainability is the basis of the group strategy. Under the name Solar2World, the group supports care projects using off-grid solar-power solutions in emerging economies and developing countries, exemplifying sustainable economic development. Worldwide, SolarWorld employs more than 2,700 people. SolarWorld AG has been quoted on the stock exchange since 1999 and today is listed on, among others, the TecDAX, ÖkoDAX, Dow Jones STOXX 600 as well as in the sustainability indices DAXglobal Alternative Energy and NAI.
www.solarworld-usa.com
Media Contact:
Ben Santarris
Public affairs manager
SolarWorld
25300 N.W. Evergreen Road
Hillsboro, OR 97124
Mobile: 503 927 9858
Office: 503 693 5189
ben.santarris(at)solarworld-usa.com
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