Air Products Signs Contract with China's Best Solar     

China's Best Solar Hi Tech Co., Ltd. is building a new thin-film photovoltaic (PV) facility in the Wuzhong Economic Development Park in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, eastern China. Gases needed in facility will be supplied by Air Products. Both sides have signed a turnkey gas supply contract on a long-term supply of hydrogen, nitrogen and argon, and specialty gases such as silane, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) and dopant gases. Air Products will also install and manage the bulk gas and specialty gas supply systems.
   When Best Solar's PV facility comes on-stream at its full capacity, it will have an annual solar module manufacturing capacity of 330MW. Best Solar's thin-film PV modules, which convert sunlight directly into electricity, will be manufactured in much the same way as thin-film transistor-liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD).
   As one of the largest suppliers to the TFT-LCD industry, Air Products is ideally suited to supply the new facility. This contract marks Air Products' largest investment in the burgeoning thin-film photovoltaic industry and complements its existing crystalline PV offerings.