20 March 2012

Soitec hires Dow Corning’s Solar Division founder as executive VP of Solar Energy Division

Soitec of Bernin, France, which makes engineered substrates including silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers (as well as III-V epiwafers through its Picogiga International division), has appointed Gaetan Borgers to as executive VP of its Solar Energy Division. With more than 20 years’ experience in the industry with Dow Corning (including more than 10 years in charge of solar programs), Borgers joins Soitec to oversee the international expansion of its concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) activities.

Picture: Gaetan Borgers.

Soitec says that CPV technology is currently the most efficient method of generating solar energy for the industrial solar power plant market in sunny regions of the world. To tap into that market potential, Borgers will be in charge of developing solar power plant projects in various target countries and overseeing Soitec’s ramp up of production capacity to achieve the electricity price required by the market. In addition, he will direct the development of related products and technologies, in particular the further development of the Smart Cell technology, which should enable CPV systems to achieve 40% efficiency.

“With the ramping up of our solar energy market activity, Soitec will benefit from new competencies that will bolster our international leadership strategy,” says president & CEO André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé.

Prior to joining Soitec, Borgers established Dow Corning’s Solar Division in 2001. He then managed the sales, marketing and technical support activities until 2011, from the USA initially and then Japan. He oversaw the opening of a new manufacturing plant in Brazil and coordinated the development of partnerships with prominent technology institutes such as Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE). Before that, he held various management posts with Dow Corning in production, purchasing, quality and customer service. Borgers also has a master’s degree in chemical process engineering and an MBA from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

Tags: Soitec Solar CPV

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