29-05-2008 / Solland Solar wins Koning Willem I Award

Solland Solar wins Koning Willem I Award for business excellence

HEERLEN (29 May 2008) – Solland Solar has won the Koning Willem I Award 2008, a biennial prize awarded to companies that have excelled through decisiveness, daring, perseverance and innovation. The Netherlands’ largest producer of solar cells outperformed both Xsens Technologies and the Software Improvement Group in the category for companies with fewer than 250 employees.
CEO Gosse Boxhoorn had the honour of accepting the award from Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima during a gala evening held in The Hague on Thursday. The reward means that Solland Solar may now carry the title “Koning Willem I Awards” with mention of the year of acceptance.

The Koning Willem I Award (www.kw1prijs.nl) was introduced in 1958 by the Dutch Central Bank (established by King William I of the Netherlands in 1814) and a number of organisations affiliated with the business community. The award receives active support from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. This year not only marks the award’s golden jubilee, but is also the first year that the jury has made a distinction between companies with fewer and more than 250 employees.

The jury commended Solland Solar for its outstanding achievements over the past few years. Despite the fact that the launch of the company had coincided with a previous government’s scrapping of solar energy subsidies to private persons, Solland has managed to achieve “explosive growth”. Economic Affairs Minister Van der Hoeven applauded the jury’s decision. “In view of future sustainability, it is important that Solland Solar has won.”
 

This award is the third of several important business prizes that Solland Solar has won within the scope of a single year. The Heerlen-based company also received the Rising Star Award 2007 in August for “the most promising technology company in the Netherlands”. In November, this was followed by the FD Gazellen Award for the fastest growing company over the past three years.
 

View the movie of the event of the Koning Willem 1 Award

About Solland Solar

Solland Solar (www.sollandsolar.com) is a Dutch-German manufacturer of solar cells (photovoltaic cells). When production started at the end of 2005, Solland Solar’s capacity came to 20 MWp/a.
This has since been increased to 60 MWp/a. Owing to the acquisition of a majority interest in Solland by Zeeland-based utilities company DELTA in February 2007, further growth of up to 170 MWp/a is anticipated. The company ultimately aims to achieve a production capacity of 500 MWp/a in 2010 (2007: 60 MWp/a) and a subsequent dramatic increase in the number of employees.
 

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