More Activity in Printed Electronics by Western Giants

 

The USA has not seen this amount of movement among the giants but GE of the USA continues to plan how it would move beyond the old silicon photovoltaics. In 2007 GE also set up a joint venture with Konica Minolta of Japan to commercialise OLED lighting.

 

 

AVANCIS is a recent joint venture between Shell and another giant corporation, the French glassmaker Saint-Gobain. It will develop, produce and market solar power modules based on CIS technology - modules containing very thin layers of copper, indium and selenium to convert sunlight directly into electricity.

 

AVANCIS combines Shell CIS technology expertise, aided by eight years of commercial manufacturing at the Camarillo plant in California, with Saint-Gobain's knowledge in glass processing and production of building materials. (CIS is the generic group of compounds of which CIGS is one of the most promising, though sometimes the terms are both used to mean CIGS alone.) However, IDTechEx believes the largest opportunity probably lies in reel to reel production of CIGS on plastic film using printing and not on glass. Look to Nanosolar for that today but perhaps AVANCIS will also become involved in such options too.

 

The first AVANCIS module production facility will be located at Torgau, Germany whereas the largest Nanosolar factory is being built near Berlin. The annual capacity of the AVANCIS plant will initially be 20 MWp, with a scope for rapid expansion. The production process for this line was developed at the AVANCIS R&D centre in Munich, Germany. AVANCIS CIGS modules will be available from 2008 onwards. The modules, with their naturally uniform tinted black look, offer superior aesthetics and are designed to "maximise light to electricity conversion, including at low light, shades and clouds". AVANCIS claims to hold many of the fundamental patents for CIS technology.

 

To find out more read Printed and Thin Film Photovoltaics and Batteries and attend Printed Electronics USA.