MUNICH, Germany — While some segments of the semiconductor business currently are struggling against the downturn, the solar energy industry apparently still sees growth chances. Technology provider Bosch group currently expands its activities in solar technology — and he is not the only one.

The Bosch group announced to invest in expanding the production capacities at its Arnstadt location for crystalline solar cells and modules at ersol Solar Energy AG (Erfurt, Germany) of which Bosch is the majority shareholder. The company said it plans to invest €530 million (about $700 million), almost tripling the company's production capacity to about 630 MWp.

The construction activities will commence as early as the current week, the company said. Besides a production line for crystalline solar cells, the company also plans to install a module manufacturing line and to expand its R&D activities. The production in the new facilities is scheduled to ramp up early 2010. The move will add 1100 jobs to the existing 1200 jobs at the company.

The move is in line with Bosch's strategic target to expand its commitment in the production regenerative energies, said Bosch deputy general manager Siegfried Dais who also acts as chairman of ersol's supervisory board.

In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, ersol has achieved sales of €214 million which is more than twice as much as it had achieved in the entire FY 2007. The company said it expects sales of €300 milllion in 2008 and "more than €400 million" in 2009.

At the same time, ersol competitor Q-Cells (Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany) also announced to expand its production capacity. The company has assigned an order to design and build a solar module factory to engineering service provider M+W Zander (Stuttgart, Germany). The production line will be built in Thalheim in Germany's state of Thuringia where already several solar technology manufacturers are active and hence have baptized the region "Solar Valley".

The Q-Cells factory will produce thin-film modules and offer a capacity of 90 MWp. The company declined to elaborate on the value of the investment.