Search sponsor
Search sponsor
The Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has received second place for a new innovation prize. The award was given by EARTO, the trade association of Europe’s specialised Research and Technology Organisations, for ECN's Solar Energy unit. ECN will share the second-place prize with the French organization CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission), which was awarded the prize for its Motionpod. The Dutch organisation TNO takes first for the development of the Legionella chip.
ECN's new solar cell and module technology was demonstrated in April of this year to achieve a conversion efficiency of 16.4%.
Partnering with Eurotron, ECN created an assembly line that can assemble the solar panels with the new technology rapidly and at low costs.
EARTO's jury has praised this Back-Contact Solar Module Assembly Line for being "an excellent example of cooperation between ECN as a research institute and trade and industry, enabling the development of innovative technologies that have high social and economic relevance... with the Back-Contact Solar Module Assembly Line technology the deployment of solar panels can be highly increased, thus contributing significantly to a sustainable energy system and the climate objectives."
ECN is among 350 knowledge institutes to join EARTO.
