The Bosch Group is planning to build a manufacturing site in the Batu Kawan region in Penang, Malaysia. The construction project for the new manufacturing site is one of the biggest in the company’s history.

The new manufacturing site in Batu Kawan will serve Asia’s solar energy market, which is growing strongly. According to Bosch, the Asian market is set to see an average annual growth of 30%.

Holger von Hebel, chairman of Bosch Solar Energy AG, said: “The planned facility will cover the entire value-added chain, from silicon crystals – known as ingots – and solar cells to the modules which can be installed on roofs or in solar power plants.”

The group aim to start production for the end of 2013. They expect to invest €520m into the manufacturing site which will have a total output of 640MW each year.

Malaysia is located in what the industry calls ‘the sun belt’. The level of solar radiation in countries located between the 35th parallels of the northern and southern hemispheres is twice as high as in Germany.

While the annual cell production of the new manufacturing site in Malaysia would cover the energy needs of 165,000 households in central Europe, Bosch say the number of households covered in Malaysia would be almost twice as high, at up to 300,000.