Vigorous Photovoltaic Industry Drives Demand for Air Liquide Air Separation Units

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Europe (Galway, Ireland)--Air Liquide SA (EPA:AI) (Paris, France) recently announced plans to build an air separation unit (ASU) in Hefei, China, to support a long-term service agreement that was recently signed with IRICO Electronics, a subsidiary of the IRICO Group Electronics Company Limited (HKG:0438) (Xianyang, China). IRICO Electronics' plant will produce glass for the photovoltaic market using full oxygen-burning glass-melting furnaces. The new ASU, combined with a recently commissioned high-purity nitrogen plant, represents an investment by Air Liquide of €50 million ($71 million) in the Heife Xinzhan Comprehensive Experiment Zone.

In a press release, Jean-Marc de Royere, Air Liquide's senior vice president for the Asia-Pacific region, said: "These contracts illustrate Air Liquide's strategy of supporting industrial basins and high-tech industries in China. Developing economies, the environment and high-tech are growth drivers for Air Liquide Group."

Solar panel manufacturers around the world are continuing to add significant production capacity in response to the growth in the solar photovoltaic industry. In 2010, annual solar photovoltaic production capacity doubled to 17 gigawatts (GW). Photovoltaic installations are expected to contribute approximately 5% of worldwide electricity generation by 2020. For additional information, see July, 8, 2011, article - China to Add More Than 1 Gigawatt of Photovoltaic Power in 2011.

Since 2009, Air Liquide has aggressively pursued the photovoltaic industry, signing long-term contracts for both industrial gases and on-site services with the largest photovoltaic production sites worldwide. Continuing in this stratum, in the second quarter of 2011, Air Liquide signed 15 new long-term contracts with photovoltaic industry leaders in China, Taiwan, Japan and Germany, taking the company's worldwide photovoltaic customer numbers to 150.

In China, new supply agreements were established with six of seven crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells market leaders, which will have a combined annual production capacity of 6.5 GW by the end of 2011.

In Taiwan, three of four market leaders, with a capacity of 3.5 GW, have signed agreements for their facilities in the Jhunan Science Park and in Tainan.

In Japan, a contract was signed with a leading c-Si solar cell manufacturer, while in Germany a major copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) manufacturer has awarded a supply contract to Air Liquide.

Francisco Martins, Air Liquide's vice president of World Business Line Electronics described the rapid growth as demonstrative of the firm's "credibility" and "value."

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