GT Solar ships 1,000th DSS450 crystalline ingot growth furnace

MERRIMACK, USA: GT Solar International Inc., a leading global provider of polysilicon production technology, crystalline ingot growth systems and related PV manufacturing services for the solar industry, announced that it has achieved the milestone shipment of its 1,000th DSS450TM crystalline ingot growth furnace.

The recipient of the system is long-time Chinese customer Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. The milestone shipment is part of a signed contract with Yingli which GT Solar announced in a press release issued on February 25, 2010. Under the terms of the contract, GT Solar is supplying its market-leading DSS450 ingot growth furnaces for installation in Yingli Green Energy’s new Hainan 100MW manufacturing facility.

“GT Solar is a trusted and valued partner for Yingli,” said Liansheng Miao, chairman and CEO of Yingli Green Energy. “Their ingot growth furnaces consistently produce high quality material which helps to reinforce our company’s reputation for delivering reliable products to our customers.”

“We are pleased that Yingli continues to express confidence in our ingot growth technology,” said Tom Gutierrez, president and CEO of GT Solar. “Customers are looking for low risk, proven technology as they add new production capacity to position themselves for growth in the worldwide solar industry. Achieving the 1,000th shipment of our DSS450 furnace is a testimony to the reliability and proven performance it offers to our growing global customer base.”

Yingli Green Energy became GT Solar’s first customer in China in 2002 when they set up the first ingot, wafer and cell production lines at their Baoding headquarters. These production lines launched Yingli into the PV manufacturing industry and today they are one of the world’s leading fully vertically integrated PV manufacturers.

Yingli has continued to invest in GT Solar’s multicrystalline ingot growth furnaces including the DSS240, which was introduced in 2003, and the current DSS450, which was introduced in 2007. Today, GT Solar has shipped over 1300 crystalline growth furnaces to customers around the world.