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WORLDNEWS
IMEC to house Kaneka’s European
PV Lab
IMEC, Europe’s nanoelectronics research Luc Van den hove, President and CEO of
centre, and Kaneka Corporation, the IMEC, states: “We are extremely happy
Japanese leading manufacturer of that Kaneka chooses IMEC as its key
chemical specialties and solar cells, have partner for its new solar cell research. It
announced a bilateral cooperation. Under emphasizes the prominent role of IMEC in
the agreement, Kaneka will incorporate its the photovoltaics domain.”
European Photovoltaics Laboratory at
IMEC in Leuven, Belgium. Working in Kaneka’s European Photovoltaics
IMEC’s facilities and collaborating with Laboratory will be the first R&D lab of a
IMEC’s experts, this will allow Kaneka to Japanese solar cell manufacturer outside
further improve its current thin-film solar of Japan. Under the agreement, a team of
cells and to develop next generation cells. engineers of Kaneka and IMEC will install
and operate Kaneka equipment in IMEC’s Dr. Kenji Yamamoto, Kaneka’s General
This agreement fits in the strategy of photovoltaics labs. Manager PV and Thin Film Device
Kaneka to examine the expansion of its Research Laboratories and Luc Van den
solar cell manufacturing capacity to 1 Dr. Kenji Yamamoto, who will be hove, IMEC’s President and CEO
Giga Watt by 2015. The decision to managing the laboratory said: “By closely
establish a European lab was motivated collaborating with IMEC’s research team based high-efficiency solar cell
by the need to have a presence, and in we will enhance Kaneka’s current thin-film technology, with an envisaged efficiency
future also a production facility, close to solar cells and develop a new industrial of beyond 20% for large cells in an
the rapidly growing European PV market. hetero-junction solar cell technology.” industrial process.
“IMEC was chosen as the R&D partner To enhance Kaneka’s amorphous silicon “This collaboration with Kaneka is an
7
because of its longstanding expertise and microcrystalline silicon (a-Si/uc-Si) solar important research activity
excellent track-record in photovoltaics, cells, IMEC’s silicon wafer process and complementary to the silicon
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and because of its unique knowledge and device technology and its expertise in photovoltaics industrial affiliation research
.solar
capabilities in materials processing and optics, micromachining and photonics will program running at IMEC;” added Dr. Jef
photonics;” says Kaneka Corporation’s be combined. The cooperation will result Poortmans, IMEC’s Photovoltaics
-pv-management.com
President Kimikazu Sugawara. in a new industrial a-Si:H hetero-junction Program Director.
PV inverter trends are moving upward
Issue V 2009
Yole Développement has released a PV inverter business is following general The recent acquisition of OKE by SMA is
market & technology study dedicated to PV market trends: the latter being driven a revealing fact of micro-inverters
the photovoltaic inverters: PV Inverter by financial supports provided by introduction on the market. As a
Trends. This analysis presents existing PV governments and development of well consequence, those recent items have a
inverter solutions and their main evolution established companies. Yole significant impact on classical PV inverter
(size, efficiency, cost, reliability). The Développement has estimated the 2008 business, industry and players. The early
report allows understanding of the main PV inverter market a bit more than €2.5 stage of production adoption of those
challenges, current solutions and future billion, mainly driven by Spanish solar technological products justifies Yole
trends regarding those parameters. farm segment and German market. Développement’s estimation.
This study also includes an important “Effectively, 2009 has faced the crisis and “Micro inverters technology will stay
topic facing the industry: the evolution of seen Spain cut out of its economical below 1% of 2009 market, says Brice Le
its environment. PV plants can have advantages,” explained Brice Le Gouic, Gouic, from Yole Développement”.
highly diversified structures due to plenty Market Analyst, Power Electronics &
of characteristics: local configuration, Compound Semiconductors at Yole Technology and opportunity in the PV
presence of sources of shadow, distance Développement. “On the other hand, inverter market has an impact on players’
between buildings, available area, and 2009 has also seen the birth of new behaviours: most of them who used to
size of the installations, thus one of the countries ready to implement PV as a new consider the inverter as a final product,
objectives of this report is to see the source of energy. PV inverters for now sees an interest in integrating new
consequence on PV inverter systems and residential segment is now entering in a functionalities for a quick return on
on players’ strategy. standardization era.” investment of the global installation.
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