solar plant

Report on the visit to the Solar plant.

On Wednesday Morning after the AGM Ditch, Gone Fishin, myself a couple of Analysts and a couple of other shareholders met with MG and Rod Sears ( GM of Silex Solar) at the Plant and received the grand tour.

It is not until you get there and just see what is going on and the sophisticated equipment that you realise just how much of a bargain this purchase was and the huge impact it is going to have on the company. Even more so it is a turn key operation and to boot we have been able to recruit some of the best employees that BP had. So we have experienced staff from day one.

Rod Sears is at the top of his game he was GM of Bp Solar set up and ran plants for Bp in the USA and Europe. Some of the state of the art machinery was designed by Rod. He is a world authority on PV cells manufacture and a down to earth gentleman to boot.

Purchase of the plant was a stroke of luck. Securing Rod to head the operation up was pure genius as this combination together with the miniscule amount of capital to be amortised is what is making me very comfortable even excited about our prospects even without Enrichment. I can not help but think that we will see dividends being paid from solar profits even before the first enrichment cheques roll in.

Here is some of the tid bits that we picked up from Rod and MG. Only 2 companies have higher performance than the first SLx cells. Sanyo and Suntec but both are very expensive and do not represent value for money. SLX cells will be the best value for money on the market. Already we are in the top 25% of World manufacturers for cell efficiency and they are confident that we will be the cheapest on a dollar for watt basis.

There are a lot of cheap Chinese made junk cells being imported but there are also some very good ones.

Silex cells will have a 25 year warranty.

A web site has been designed and is planned to go live next week (this week now) www.silexsolar.com.au

The initial production from the factory will be 50 meg of cells and 10 meg of panels. Ultimate production could be around 200 meg so lots of room for expansion with the current facilities.

Break even for the plant is commercially sensitive but ROD said 10 meg is more than breakeven.

Most panels being sold now are in the order of 150 watt. Silex have a clear strategy planned for future production. The first panels to be sold will be marketed as SilexSolar 180 Watt Photovoltaic Module SLX180.

Generation 1 = SilexSolar SLX180 17% plus efficiency will deliver 180 to 200 watt
G2 = 19% efficiency will deliver 220 watt
G3 = 21% will deliver 250 watt
G4 = Translucent advanced material will deliver 30% plus

There will be an official opening of the plant in February with PM and Premier Likely to be in attendance.