NEWS I ROUNDUP


Fraunhofer scientist wins with organic solar cells


Scientist Jan Meiß has been awarded with the ‘Green Photonics“ for young academics at the Hanover Fair. Within his dissertation in cooperation with Heliatek GmbH and Fraunhofer IPMS – COMEDD, he succeeded in the development of novel concepts for organic solar cells with high impact: his solar cells are four times more efficient as conventional organic solar cells.


Producing electricity from sun light sounds easy and tempting. But photovoltaics came under criticism because of its high costs. Depending on the type of the solar cells costs are caused by rare and expensive materials.


The so called “organic photovoltaic“ (OPV), also known as “plastic solar cells”, has a potential for the reduction of costs.


The technology is now ready to enter the market and can be carried out under low temperatures (< 400°C) using cost-saving materials and the complete solar cell could be thinner than 500 nanometres!


Organic materials are dyes based on carbonates, well known in the daily life as food colorant or car finish.


The vision is a light weight, thin solar cell at plastic foil with a weight of 500 g per square meter active solar cell area, which can be rollable, transportable and easy integrable. Especially transparent devices are high of interest for the integration of photovoltaic into faces of buildings or “power windows”, which can be used as a sunscreen as well as power generator. The dissertation of Jan Meiß resulted in important progress for organic solar cells:


Norwegian solar company sells German power plant to investors IREC Systems, a business unit of


Renewable Energy Corporation (REC), has sold a 6 MW solar power plant that it successfully developed, financed, and constructed in Bitterfeld, Germany to two investment companies in the Chorus Group. Originally developed by Grune Energien GmbH, REC Systems took full control of the project in September 2011 — when it was less than 50 percent developed — and provided the necessary project development, financing, and streamlined construction. REC completed construction of the plant in December 2011, ensuring the plant’s eligibility for the higher 2011 feed-in tariff. The ground-mounted system in Bitterfeld consists of 27,096 high performance REC


he developed amongst others


alternatives to


conventional transparent conductive layers (e.g. ITO – Indium-Tin-Oxid), which can be conserve resources, save costs and are easy to produce.


Jan Meiß says, “Because of an optimized layer composition we succeded in the development of an organic solar cell with an efficiency of 4,9 % and a transmission of 20%. This means: one- fifth of the irradiated light goes completely through the organic solar cell. The efficiency of the transparent organic solar cell has been seven times higher as known from literature and is unbeaten until now.”


modules installed on an area of 13 hectares, with an annual capacity of approximately 6,101 MWh and 3,435 tons of CO2 emissions saved each year.


The project was sold to two investment companies in the Chorus Group, with project financing from DKB AG (Deutsche Kreditbank AG). “We are extremely happy to acquire yet another state-of-the-art solar power plant from REC Systems,” said Thomas Laumont, Managing Director, Chorus Cleantech Management GmbH. “REC Systems’ management of the development and building of this project ensures the reliability of this solar power plant for the years to come.”


“Chorus is a knowledgeable and experienced investor in solar energy plants, valuing REC’s efficient modules and high-quality solutions. We are delighted to be their partner once again,” said Terje Pilskog, Senior Vice President, Systems and Business Development, REC.


This is not the first investment in REC modules by Chorus. In 2011, Chorus acquired several systems built in Italy by REC Systems using REC modules.


MEMC heads off rumours of CEO departure


MEMC Electronic Materials has issued a statement to correct misinformation which has come to the company’s attention. “We have been made aware of rumors relating to the company which may be causing concern,” said John Marren, Chairman of the MEMC Board of Directors, “and we wish to make it absolutely clear that Ahmad Chatila remains our CEO. The MEMC Board has been actively engaged in the ongoing review of the company’s performance and has taken appropriate action


when necessary or desirable,” Marren continued. “The restructuring led by Ahmad and management announced in December 2011 is reflective of this engagement, but the announced restructuring was not the end of our work. Our markets remain challenging and so our efforts to improve performance and drive shareholder value continue unabated. We are committed to working with Ahmad and management to drive results,” concluded Marren.


Issue III 2012 I www.solar-international.net 11


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