The Canadian company Silfab Solar is reportedly now aiming to add 50 new jobs in 2016, bringing the number of employees added in 2015–2016 up to 80, according to recent reports.
In addition to the decision to add a further 50 employees, the company also reportedly has revealed that it intends to begin offering a new bifacial module by the end of 2015. The recent news follows an announcement last week revealing that the company was adding 30 new full-time jobs and was increasing capacity up to 300 megawatts (MWp), up from 180 MWp.
The head of business development, sales, and marketing at Silfab, Geoffrey Atkins, commented recently in an interview that the 30 jobs added recently were for factory floor positions: “The 50 additional ‘expected’ new positions in 2016 would be a mix of added factory floor team members and admin. We are adding to our sales team, marketing team, HR and finance teams. As well we are creating new product engineers and QC team members.”
The decision to increase production capacity from 180 MW to 300 MW is the result of strong demand throughout the North American markets, and the increase is expected to be completed sometime in Quarter 3 of 2015.
The production equipment for the increase is coming from Europe, according to Atkins.
“The investment allows us to increase both volumes and flexibility with a brand new line designed to receive the latest cells and module designs, and with modifications to the existing line to do the same. The investment has been entirely self-funded by Silfab Solar and its commercial bank partners.”
With regard to the decision to release a new bifacial solar photovoltaic (PV) module: “The bifacial module and product has received a lot of interest and we are targeting the product primarily for the CDN and US Northeast market due to the dramatic snow-shedding ability and reflective gain off the backside in snow conditions.”
Image Credit: Silfab Solar
