Developing and commercialising the blue LED led to the ongoing revolution in the lighting industry, something research facility CSEM wants to emulate with the development of a completely white solar panel.
Thin-film manufacturer Hanergy has completed the first phase of a BIPV install at its headquarters in Beijing, covering the building’s exterior almost entirely with 600kW of thin-film PV.
Smartflex, a three-year project part-funded by the EU, which began in April aimed at making it possible for architects to create custom BIPV modules, has reached a number of milestones in its progress including the development of a pilot production line.
The German arm of Nanosolar, the US based thin-film company which closed in July this year, was relaunched at the beginning of November as Smartenergy Renewables Deutschland.
Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Electron Beam and Plasma Technology, ISC and IVV are working to develop a flexible weather-resistant PV encapsulation film aimed at building-integrated PV (BIPV) applications.
The European Commission has launched an anti-dumping investigation against Chinese manufacturers of solar glass following a complaint filed last month.
ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe has joined the Solliance (ECN, imec, TNO, Holst Centre, TU/e, Forschungszentrum Jülich) R&D alliance that is focused on organic photovoltaics (OPV) thin film technologies.
