Jun 11 2010
A subsidiary of Saint-Gobain named Avancis will be constructing a novel plant for producing photovoltaic (PV) modules that find applications in industrial, commercial and residential buildings in addition to solar plants. The plant will be situated in Torgau, Germany.
Thin-film CIGS (Copper - Indium - Gallium - Selenide) photovoltaic panels will be manufactured in this plant. Having an annual manufacturing output of 100 MWp, the new plant will generate sufficient electricity to power 15,000 homes annually. Production on the plant is likely to commence by Q1 of 2012.
Based on depositing a CIGS coating on top of a glass substrate, the innovative technology achieves greater conversion efficiencies in comparison with other thin-film technologies. The technology also provides a way of avoiding conventional crystalline silicon. This cost-effective technology is efficient even at low levels of light exposure.
This technology couples the low production expenses related with thin-film based approaches with high levels of efficiencies obtained utilizing polycrystalline silicon cells.
The PV solar energy market has been growing at a rapid pace. Today, the nominal energy installed at a worldwide scale is approximately 10 GW. Between 2010 and 2010, this market is likely to grow 20-30% per year. Saint-Gobain, with this investment, is intending to garner a considerable share of the mushrooming solar market.
Source: http://www.saint-gobain.com/