De Commissie geeft 45 miljoen aan Deutsche Solar AG (en)
The European Commission has authorised €45 million of regional investment aid for the German company Deutsche Solar AG for the production of solar wafers in Freiberg, Germany. The project involves an investment of €350 million and is expected to create at least 130 new jobs in the region. After an in-depth investigation, Germany reduced the planned aid amount to take account of aid already received by the same company for previous investments in the same sector. The Commission therefore concluded that the positive impact of the investment on regional development outweighs the potential distortions of competition.
“The solar wafer plant is expected to create new jobs in Freiberg and will contribute to the development of the region without unduly distorting competition," said Commission Vice President and Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia i.
Deutsche Solar manufactures solar wafers which are used to produce solar cells out of which solar modules are made. Solar modules convert sunlight into electricity. Deutsche Solar is a subsidiary of the SolarWorld group, which is active at worldwide level in the solar power industry.
The investment project is located in Freiberg East, Saxony, Germany, an area eligible for aid under Article 107(3)(a) of the EU Treaty as a region with an abnormally low standard of living and high unemployment.
Deutsche Solar already has two other production sites in Freiberg: one in Freiberg South and one in Freiberg Saxonia. The project in Freiberg East, a new plant for the production of solar wafers, started in December 2007 and will be finalised by end of 2010. The costs of the new project are €350 million and the notified aid amounted to €48 million.
The Commission opened a formal investigation procedure in July 2008 (see IP/08/1178) due to concerns that the notified aid was not fully in line with the Regional Aid Guidelines 2007-2013 (see IP/05/1653), in particular the conditions for granting aid for large regional investment projects. The guidelines prescribe a progressive reduction of the aid ceiling for large projects, because these suffer less from typical regional handicaps than smaller projects. If the project of the Freiberg East plant formed a single investment project with another investment to be made into the Freiberg South plant, the scaling down mechanism would have to be applied to the combined investments and therefore the amount of aid for the Freiberg East plant would have to be reduced. Deutsche Solar and the German authorities however claimed that these investments were separate projects.
Following the opening of the formal investigation, Germany withdrew the aid for the project in Freiberg South and reduced the aid for the project in Freiberg East to €45 million, in order to limit the total aid granted for the combined costs of the projects in Freiberg East and Freiberg South to the maximum allowable in a 'single investment project'. Therefore there is no need anymore to investigate whether the notified project forms a single investment project with these previous projects. As it was also confirmed that the market share of the beneficiary and the production capacity created by the investment would remain below the thresholds of the Regional aid Guidelines, the Commission concluded that the aid is in line with EU state aid rules and has therefore closed its investigation.
The non-confidential version of the decision will be made available under the case number C 34/2008 in the State Aid Register on the DG Competition website once any confidentiality issues have been resolved. New publications of state aid decisions on the internet and in the Official Journal are listed in the State Aid Weekly e-News.