The investment in a Solar Energy Exploration / Development Center (SEED) includes two new buildings that will complement the company’s Business & Technology Center in Seneffe, Belgium.

One building, a Synthesis Technology Center for the European area, will house laboratories and chemists focusing on innovations in silicon-based materials. The other, the European Solar Solutions Application Center, will focus on advancing the company’s technology for use in solar PV cells.

Construction is expected to begin later in 2010.

In addition to the company’s three current solar application centres in the United States and Korea, the European Solar Application Center will enable engineers and scientists to work with customers to develop, evaluate, and test silicon-based materials solutions used to make solar PV cells.

“Europe has been a pioneer for the solar industry and Dow Corning is excited to strengthen its capabilities in the European Union, where many of our customers and innovation collaborators in the scientific community are located,” says Eric Peeters, Dow Corning Business Vice President Solar.