Applied Materials makes solar union for €225 million
When Greenbang heard about the acquisition of Italian solar cell manufacturer by nanomanufacturer Applied Materials for €225 million, she wandered over to Babelfish for a quick translation of Baccini.Greenbang ran the word Baccini through the automatic translation software and hey presto! Greenbang can now tell you that Baccini translates from Italian to English as “Baccini”.Thanks Babelfish.In an effort to bring you something slightly more useful about Baccini, Greenbang can tell you that Baccini sell automated metallisation and test systems for manufacturing crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and the acquisition was an all cash deal.
“This acquisition is a key step in our goal to become the leading equipment supplier to the solar industry,” said Mike Splinter, president and CEO of Applied Materials. “With our broad portfolio of advanced solar cell manufacturing technologies, we plan to reduce the production costs for both crystalline silicon cell and thin film modules, while also decreasing the grams-per-watt usage of silicon material. As a result, we expect to help drive down the cost of solar electricity to be competitive with conventional electricity sources and to accelerate the rate of adoption of solar technology for commercial and residential applications.” Baccini will be integrated within Applied’s Solar Business Group, headed by vice president Charles Gay. Applied’s portfolio of crystalline silicon cell production technologies includes precision wafering, passivation layer deposition with its ATON™ system, automated wafer handling capabilities, and back-end-of-the-line processes such as metallisation (screen printing), laser-based isolation, test and sorting.
