Jan 26 2009
Air Products today announced it has signed a turnkey gas supply contract to provide liquid bulk and specialty gases, related gas distribution equipment, and engineering services to Gadir Solar at its new silicon thin-film photovoltaic (PV) facility in Puerto Real, Cadiz, Spain.
The contract includes the long-term supply of nitrogen, hydrogen, argon, oxygen, and specialty gases such as silane, NF3 (nitrogen trifluoride), and dopant gases. Air Products will also install and operate the complete gas distribution systems from the source containers to the point of use.
“Air Products is very excited to be working with Gadir as their gas supply partner. Gadir is a leader in the Spanish energy market, and we feel our expertise and complete turnkey offerings will enable a fast ramp to meet Gadir’s growth plans,” said Jeff Handelman, Air Products general manager, Photovoltaics. “Our cost roadmap and partnership approach ensures our customers will always have a secure and reliable supplier that can grow with them, regardless of geography. We are committed to achieving the lowest cost of ownership for our customers and assisting them to reach the overall industry goal of grid parity.”
David Naranjo, CEO of Gadir Solar said, “We chose Air Products for their reliability, safety record, engineering expertise, and experience on the thin-film PV platform technology. We have aggressive growth plans, and we feel Air Products is the right business partner to meet our needs.”
With the demand for renewable energy and improved efficiency on the rise, Air Products is well positioned to take advantage of these developing markets with its expertise and project experience in areas including large scale hydrogen supply for cleaner transportation fuels, developmental work on the hydrogen economy, hydrogen vehicle fuelling and infrastructure, leading natural gas liquefaction technology, and now the growing supply of gases and services for the photovoltaic industry. Air Products has business on all of the major OEM tool sets.