BORDEAUX, France, September 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the
announcement made by Air Liquide on September 6th [1], the Europe Environnement
Group, a 51%-owned subsidiary of the Europlasma Group, announced
the signing of a contract worth over 10
million euros with Air Liquide in connection with 3Sun
building Europe's largest
photovoltaic cell and panel plant in Catania, Italy.
The Europe Environnement Group, through its American subsidiary
AMPlast, will be supplying Air Liquide with a gas treatment line
designed to equip 3Sun's solar cell and panel production plant in
Catania, Italy. This contract will
draw on the combined expertise of all the Europe Environnement
Group's units (gas oxidation, aeraulics, filtration, piping,
scrubbers, engineering) and include a complex development section.
It will be spread over 10 months, between September 2010 and July
2011.
3Sun is a solar cell and panel plant, with a production capacity
of 160 MW forecast for the end of 2011, rising to 480MW by the end
of 2015. 3Sun is a joint-venture between the Japanese electronics
firm Sharp, the Italian energy firm Enel and the European
semiconductor leader STMicroelectronics. In time, 3Sun will be
Sharp's largest plant outside of Japan.
The production of solar cells based on the thin-film technique
developed by Sharp involves the use of hazardous and toxic gases.
These gases cannot be released into the atmosphere and require
specific treatment, covered under this deal. The development of the
gas section of the 3Sun plant has been assigned to the Air Liquide
group, which in turn selected AMPlast as its subcontractor for the
gas treatment line's design and onsite integration. The scrubbers
will be manufactured in Alsace, France, in Europe Environnement's new plant
which was inaugurated in 2009, and will form the visible part of
the facility on the roof of the 3Sun building.
This facility will be the new reference for the Group's gas
treatment capabilities, serving a buoyant new market and one of the
world's top-performing plants in this field. Talks are underway
concerning other projects of similar scale.
For Jean-Claude Rebischung, Chief
Executive Officer of the Europe Environnement Group, "This contract
represents the first concrete illustration of our change of stature
in a complex business. The acquisitions made over the past few
years, the additional areas of expertise deployed and the major
investment made in Aspach are today enabling us to convince leading
groups such as Air Liquide. It also marks Europe Environnement's
arrival on a major new market: photovoltaics. Boosted by this
reference, the Group is currently in talks for other similar
projects."
For Didier Pineau, Chief
Executive Officer of the Europlasma Group, "This success has been
achieved thanks to the patient work accomplished with the managers
from the Europe Environnement Group and Naxicap Partners. We have
built an industrial tool by investing against the cycle in a new
plant in 2009, assembled the expertise needed to carry out this
type of project and acquired companies with complementary know-how,
such as AMCEC and AMPlast in the US. I am delighted that we are
seeing the first benefits of this strategy as early as 2010."
About Europlasma
Founded in 1992, Europlasma is a French group specialized in
clean technologies and renewable energy production. The Europlasma
Group is made up of four companies and 260 employees who are all
firmly committed to sustainable development and experts in waste
processing and reclamation.
- Europlasma develops, produces and markets waste processing
and energy production solutions based on its proprietary plasma torch
technology.
- Inertam is the global specialist for the destruction and
reclamation of asbestos and hazardous waste.
- CHO Power is a waste gasification power producer (EfW -
Electricity from Waste).
- Europe Environnement is the European market leader for
ventilation and air depollution systems for industry.
[http://www.europlasma.com]
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[1]
http://www.airliquide.com/en/italy-major-contract-with-3sun-a-solar-joint-ven
ture-by-enel-green-power-sharp-stmicroelectronics.html
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paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address
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Press and investor contacts
Europlasma
Didier Pineau, Chief Executive Officer
contactbourse@europlasma.com - Tel: +33-5-56-49-70-00
Calyptus
Marie Ein / Alexis Breton
europlasma@calyptus.net - Tel: +33-1-53-65-68-68