Azernews.Az

A plant for the production of solar panels which is currently under construction in Sumgayit, an industrial town located about 30 km north of the Azerbaijani capital Baku, will operate in test mode until the end of January 2012, deputy head of Azerbaijan’s State Agency for Alternative and Renewable Energy, Jamil Malikov, told Trend news agency.

Earlier, a test run of the plant had been scheduled before the end of 2011.

Malikov noted that the slight delay in the commissioning of the facility was due to a delay in the delivery of equipment.

"All the work is almost complete and it remains only to install some of the equipment," he said, adding that the work will be completed soon, in time for the launch of the plant at the end of January.

The plant will operate only one shift from three planned at the initial stage. Output at full capacity is planned for fall 2012 and will depend on the demand for manufactured products.

The plant will produce energy-saving LED-lamps along with solar panels.

Construction of the plant is funded by the private sector. Azguntex Azerbaijan, with the support of the agency for alternative energy sources, is building the facility.

Equipment installed at the plant was made in Germany. Prices of the finished product are in line with those offered by Chinese producers.

Annual production capacity will exceed 100,000 units of photoelectric modules with a total capacity of 25 MWt, and about 1 million units of various energy resources.