Applied wins 5-year ENN Solar agreement

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Applied Materials (Nasdaq:AMAT) said today it has locked down a five-year contract with ENN Solar Energy to support ENN’s photovoltaic module manufacturing facility in Langfang, China.

ENN says it’s a way to optimize the return on its investment in Applied’s production line.

Applied, the world’s largest producer of chip-making gear, said the Langfang facility already features its 60 megawatt-capacity SunFab thin film production line (see ENN Solar makes supersized thin film on first Applied line in China).

The machines are producing thin-film silicon photovoltaic solar modules that are 5.7 square-meters—nearly four times larger than traditional modules.

Applied says it plans to provide the Chinese thin film developer with ways to lower its operating costs, increase module efficiency as well as providing optimal performance of the production line as part of today’s contract. This includes maintenance and management of the production line and analytical services. Financial details were not disclosed.

“This agreement will allow us to replace much of our fixed cost infrastructure with a variable alternative that can flex as the market changes,” said Rick Wan, ENN’s general manager in a news release. “This flexibility will free us to focus on successfully delivering high-performance, low-cost modules to our customers.”

ENN Solar Energy is a member of the ENN Group, but it first spun out of natural gas company XinAo Group in November 2007 when XinAo entered the solar market by buying production equipment from Applied Materials.

Earlier this month, Applied’s CEO Mike Splinter said he was seeing solar investments increase in China because market demand is predicted to follow, especially in wafers for crystalline silicon solar cells (see Applied CEO sees solar taking an upward turn, spurred by China).

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