ersol expands management ranks

Peter Schneidewind as fourth Board Member responsible for ersol’s Thin Film activities
Board of Management expanded to accommodate strong growth in business
Responsibilities to be reshuffled in Board


Erfurt, 28 February 2008. With effect from 1 March 2008 ersol Solar Energy AG (ersol) is expanding its hitherto three-person Board of Management. Peter Schneidewind, past and future Managing Director of ersol Thin Film GmbH, will be responsible for the Thin Film activities as the fourth Board Member in addition to Dr. Claus Beneking (CEO), Ekhard von Dewitz (CFO) and Jürgen Pressl (COO).

Peter Schneidewind (40), a physics graduate, has served in the position of Director of ersol Modules at the Thüringian PV producer since 1 September 2007. This segment includes wholly-owned ersol subsidiary aimex-solar GmbH, ersol Thin Film GmbH, in which ersol has a majority holding, and a 35% holding in the ersol Group’s Chinese joint venture Shanghai Electric Solar Energy Co. Ltd. (SESE). After a term at the Fraunhofer Institut für Solare Energiesysteme (Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems) in Freiburg, he worked at Schott as a product developer for solar systems. In the course of his activities as product manager at Ferrofluidics he was in charge of European sales for thin-film technology. In his most recent position Peter Schneidewind managed the high-tech sector at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants for many years with a focus on semi-conductor technology and renewable energy.

“ersol’s Thin Film activities are setting a brisk pace in growth. Recently we launched module sales, brought an investor on board as a co-partner and founded a research alliance with Schott Solar for the development of micromorphous technology. ersol Thin Film is thus well set for the future,” explains Peter Schneidewind. “Overall there are many important issues and tasks which will be catered for by creating a position such as this,” the new ersol Board member sums up.

The appointment of a further member of the Board of Management is accompanied by a reassignment of responsibilities within the management team due to the many tasks to be tackled by the Management resulting from the growth in all segments. The responsibilities will be reassigned as follows:

Dr. Claus Beneking (Chief Executive) will be responsible for the production and sale of crystalline modules, corporate strategy, research and development, human resources and investor relations.

Ekhard von Dewitz (Chief Financial Officer) will be responsible for finances, controlling, IT, internal administration and legal matters.

Besides his present areas of responsibility Silicon and Wafers, Jürgen Pressl (COO) will now also be responsible for the segment Solar Cells.

Peter Schneidewind (Deputy Board Member) will immediately take responsibility for the Thin Film activities, which was previously in the charge of Dr. Beneking.

Media contact
Janina Broscheit
ersol Solar Energy AG
Public Relations
Wilhelm-Wolff-Str. 23
99099 Erfurt, Germany

Phone: +49 (0)361 2195-1181
Fax: +49 (0)361 2195-1133
Email: presse(at)ersol.de

About ersol

ersol Solar Energy AG produces and markets high-quality silicon-based photovoltaic products. The Group comprises the segments Silicon, Wafers, Solar Cells and Modules. With sales of € 160 million in financial year 2007, the Thuringia-based company is one of the leading players in the solar industry. Listed since 30 September 2005 on the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the young ersol share had already been added to the TecDAX on 19 December 2005. Currently the ersol Group has more than 850 employees.

The Company’s main goal is to establish itself even more strongly as a manufacturer of high quality silicon solar cells and to account for a disproportionate slice of the anticipated growth in the photovoltaic industry. To achieve this, ersol currently focuses on technologically demanding stages of the value chain for photovoltaic plants, and in particular on the production of wafers and solar cells. There are a number of pillars to the Company’s supply of the raw material it needs, silicon. It is primarily secured by long-term delivery agreements with leading polysilicon manufacturers. In addition to this, the Company’s internal recycling capacities in the silicon area also make an important contribution. Silicon is processed in the Wafers segment. The monocrystalline wafers manufactured there are preliminary products for the manufacturing of highly-efficient silicon solar cells in the Solar Cells segment. Since early 2006 the company has been delivering a part of its solar cells for the production of solar modules to the joint venture Shanghai Electric Solar Energy Co. Ltd. (SESE) in which the ersol Group has a 35% holding. The sales of these and other photovoltaic modules are handled in part by the Modules business segment. In the future, this segment is expected to include the Company’s own module production, planned for 2009. ersol also develops silicon-saving thin-film technology in the Modules segment. For this purpose ersol has a production facility for silicon thin-film modules.

This release was published on openPR.