German Stock Corporation Act
German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority
Designation for large, and frequently international, stockmarket-listed companies or customers.
Capex is an abbreviation of “capital expenditure”. This relates to a company’s investment expenditure in long-term items of fixed assets such as new machinery, plant, and production buildings.
The net inflow of cash and cash equivalents generated from sales activity and other ongoing activities during a given period.
centrotherm photovoltaics AG and its Group subsidiaries.
Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide
Compliance relates to actions in harmony with prevailing rules of behaviour, laws, and guidelines.
Coverage of a listed stock corporation with studies and research produced by banks and financial analysts.
Solar cells based on crystalline silicon.
centrotherm SiQ GmbH & Co. KG
centrotherm Besitz GmbH & Co. KG
Stock exchange abbreviation for the centrotherm photovoltaics share.
centrotherm photovoltaics AG
centrotherm photovoltaics Asia Pte. Ltd.
centrotherm photovoltaics solutions GmbH & Co. KG
centrotherm thermal solutions GmbH & Co. KG
Reactor for the conversion of trichlorsilane into polysilicon using the Siemens method.
German stock market index. It reflects the changes in share prices for the 30 largest German shares in terms of size and turnover.
The DAXsubsector Renewable Energies Index comprises companies that operate in the sector that develops plant for alternative and/or renewable energy sources (solar technology, wind power plants etc).
A set of rules developed by a government commission of the Federal Republic of Germany primarily that contains recommendations for good corporate
governance, in other words, ethical behaviour on the part of corporate management and organisations.
Ratio between electrical output and solar input.
Operating earnings. Key corporate figure corresponds to profit from ordinary business activities after depreciation and amortisation, and before interest and tax.
EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation) is a key corporate indicator that reflects the company’s profitability independently of its capital structure or propensity to invest.
Eneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz ; legislation defining the precedence of renewable energies in Germany.
New version of the German Renewable Energies Act (EEG), which, among other things, envisages continued support for solar electricity until 2014.
European Photovoltaic Industry Association
Ratio of production costs (in EUR) per cell yield at normal condition in “watt peak” (Wp).
Tochtergesellschaft FHR Anlagenbau GmbH subsidiary
Commissioning and ramp-up of first polysilicon equipment and the fi rst production of polysilicon in a company’s own CVD reactors.
Index for owner-managed, medium sized companies in the Prime Standard.
Grid parity refers to the point in time when electricity from a photovoltaic plant can be offered at the same price to end-customers as conventional electricity.
Gigawatt-peak
German Commercial Code
Commercial register, Department B (corporations)
International Accounting Standards
Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer (German Institute of Auditors)
Term given to all accounting standards published by the International Accounting Standards Committee. Also applied to accounting standards newly approved by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) since 2003. Standards approved until 2002 are still published under the designation of International Accounting Standards (IAS). Existing IAS are only renamed IFRS if the related standards undergo fundamental amendments.
Institut für Weltwirtschaft, Kiel (Germany) (Kiel Institute for the World Economy)
The term ingot denotes a block made of mono-crystalline or poly-crystalline silicon wafer production in the semiconductor and photovoltaic industry. Mono-crystalline ingots are drawn from a single crystal and always have a round, column-type shape. The silicon is melted and subsequently cast to produce poly-crystalline ingots. Since the purity of mono-crystalline silicon is always higher than poly-crystalline silicon, it is primarily used as a feedstock in the semiconductor industry, whereas poly-crystalline silicon find use in the solar industry.
Abbreviation for “Initial Public Offering”; initial public offering of a company’s securities in the form of a flotation.
International Solar Energy Research Center, Konstanz (Germany)
Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme, Freiburg (Germany)
Abbreviation for “International Security Identification Number”. The ISIN serves to clearly identify securities on an international basis, and is issued by the relevant national authority.
Period during which a company’s previous shareholders are not permitted to sell their shares following a share issue.
Megawatt-peak
The company allocates an order to its order book as soon as the related agreement has been signed by both parties, and the realization of the agreement is sufficiently likely in the assessment of the company’s Management Board. This usually requires the rendering of a significant prepayment, and/or the opening of a commercial letter of credit by the contractual partner.
Abbreviation for “Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition”, also known as “Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition”. The term denotes a special form of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) that involves the deposition of thin layers by means of chemical reaction. The process is supported by means of a plasma. A high energy electrical field is applied between the substrate to be coated and a counterelectrode to ignite a plasma. The plasma breaks down the chemical bonding of the reaction gas into its radicals, which migrate to the substrate to form the chemical deposition. The process enables a high deposition rate at low deposition temperature.
Phosphorous diffusion refers to equalization of concentration differences up to virtually complete blending as a result of the movement of phosphor atoms. This particle displacement is triggered based on particle energy and on temperature.
Photovoltaic (PV) refers to the direct transformation of radiation energy, principally solar energy, into electrical energy. The name consists of the components “photos”, the Greek word for “light”, and “volta”, which is derived from Alessandro Volta, a pioneer of electrotechnology.
Photovoltaic modules are used individually or in groups to generate electricity in photovoltaic plants by directly converting sunlight into electrical energy. Their most important components are number of serially and parallel connected solar cells.
Please refer to silicon
The Prime Standard is a stock exchange segment for listing shares on the Frankfurt Securities Exchange. Issuers in the Prime Standard must satisfy international transparency requirements going above and beyond the level of the General Standard. The Prime Standard particularly comprises companies that wish to reach not only national but also international investors.
The PVD process, in other words, the process of physical vapour deposition, refers to a group of coating processes, or thin film technologies, where the layer is formed directly by condensation of a material vapour of the output material.
centrotherm Photovoltaics Technology GmbH
Renewable Energy Industrial Index; global share index for the renewable energy sector.
A measure of profitability widely used in Anglo-Saxon countries. It compares EBITDA (operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) with the capital invested in the company.
Stock Appreciation Rights Program, stock option program: share-based remuneration system to enable the Group’s Management Board and managers
to participate economically in the share capital of centrotherm photovoltaics AG.
Solid body whose electrical conductivity undergoes major modification as a result of the targeted introduction of impurities (semiconductor doping). This allows the manufacturing of electronic components such as diodes, transistors, as well as solar cells.
Management philosophy aimed at long-term enhancement of shareholder value. In this approach, the company’s management operates on the basis that its providers of capital, in other words, its shareholders, are entitled to see an appreciation in the value of their investment.
Process to manufacture high-purity silicon for the semiconductor or solar industry. It involves initially converting metallurgical silicon into trichlorosilane using gaseous hydrogen chloride. Following several distillation steps, the thrichlorosilane is broken down thermally into silicon and chlorous gases through the addition of hydrogen in a so-called “CVD reactor”. The silicon is deposited on high-purity silicon rods that are introduced.
Derived from the Latin word “silex”, which means “flint”. Silicon is a semimetal that is prevalent in large volumes around the world. The crude silicon must be further purified into solar silicon for the production of solar cells, however.
Non-crystalline form of the silicon semiconductor. Can be used as semiconductor material for thin film solar cells through the addition of hydrogen (a-Si:H hydrogenated amorphous silicon).
The metallic pastes are sintered for the production of solar cells. This process evaporates all organic materials from the metal pastes.
High-vacuum-based coating technology for the production of thin film solar modules.
Converts silicon tetrachloride into trichlorosilane, which can be used to produce polysilicon.
Index that reflects the share price development of the 30 largest technology stocks in the Prime Standard below DAX shares.
€1,000
Division concerned with the manufacturing of thin fi lm solar modules. Thin film cells differ from traditional solar cells (crystalline solar cells based on silicon wafers) mainly with respect to their production processes, and the layer thickness of materials used. Centrotherm photovoltaics uses thin film technology based on copper indium gallium diselenide.
Produced volume per time unit; solar cell hours, for example.
Key operating figure derived from sales for a given period, the net balance of changes to stock, and own work capitalised.
Ready to use
Chemical process where the gas mixture arising from silicon production is separated into its individual components before being reintroduced into the production process. This gas recovery allows a significant reduction in energy costs, and simultaneously makes an important contribution to environmental protection.
The term wafer used in the semiconductor industry, the photovoltaic industry and in micro-mechanical engineering denotes a thin circular or square disc made of mono-crystalline or poly-crystalline silicon on which electronic or micro-mechanical components are bonded in various technical processes.
German abbreviation for Wertpapier-Kennnummer (securities identification number). The WKN is a six-figure alphanumeric
code to enable a security to be identified clearly. It is issued by the Institut für die Ausgabe und Verwaltung von Wertpapieren in Deutschland (securities announcements) (Institute for the Issuance and Administration of Securities in Germany).
Unit for the standardised power (rated power) of solar cells or modules. The value is derived from standard test conditions (25°C module temperature, at 1 kW/m² radiation strength), which do not directly correspond to general everyday usage.
German Securities Trading Act
German Securities Prospectus Act
Fully electronic trading system for the cash market. Over 260 European banks and securities houses trade listed securities, primarily equities, on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange via Xetra®.
Ratio between product output and input material, example, the number of manufactured solar cells measured against the number of input wafers.
