Khevel company, a joint venture of Russia's state-owned Rusnano and Renova group, owned by tycoon Viktor Vekselberg, will start producing solar thin-film panels in 2012, Vekselberg said on Friday.
It will be the first ever production in Russia of such panels.
Khevel is building a plant with a capacity of over one million solar panels per year in central Russia. It will use technology from Swiss high-tech industrial group Oerlikon, of which Vekselberg is one of the shareholders.
"We will start equipment installation by the end of the year and launch full-scale production of thin-film solar panels by the beginning of 2012," Vekselberg told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, adding that it would help creating the base for the development of the alternative energy sector in Russia.
In 2012 the company may start building a solar park in the south of Russia using solar panels, Vekselberg said.
MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti)
