Ritek to invest $24.8 mn more in PVNext

TAIPEI, TAIWAN: Ritek Corporation, Taiwan’s second biggest manufacturer of blank optical discs, has announced an additional investment amounting to NT$800 million (US $24.8 million) in the Taiwan-based PVNext Corporation for a stake of 40 per cent.

PVNext Corporation is a copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module joint-venture with Scheuten Solar Holding BV, headquartered in The Netherlands.

The additional investment, Ritek Corporation said in a statement, is being done because PVNext Corporation is issuing new shares to raise an extra paid-in capital of NT$2 billion.

According to Ritek Corporation, PVNext Corporation has succeeded in the trial-production of 600 x 1,200mm CIGS thin-film PV modules, having an energy-conversion rate of 17 per cent.

In addition, PVNext Corporation plans to launch volume-production in the first quarter of 2010, according to Ritek Corporation.