Oerlikon Solar launches its new record-breaking module

Trubbach (Switzerland), September 5, 2011 Today, Oerlikon Solar is launching a new record-breaking module with 154 (peak) watts (W) of stabilized module output and 10.8% efficiency. This represents an increase of 8% over the previous peak value. The record module will be ready for use on Oerlikon Solar's existing ThinFabTM lines by early 2013. This is when customers will also be able to manufacture it themselves, resulting in considerably lower production costs.

“We are committed to investing in research and development in order to further reduce production costs for solar modules, and to make photovoltaics an economically viable energy source,” explains Helmut Frankenberger, CEO of Oerlikon Solar. “The new record indicates how advanced our thin film silicon technology is.”

Oerlikon Solar is one of the world’s largest developers and producers of field-proven, automated, turnkey production lines and equipment for the mass production of environmentally sustainable thin film silicon modules. In addition to making continual improvements in efficiency, the company has also succeeded in further lowering production costs for solar modules.

With the 120 MW-ThinFabTM line, Oerlikon Solar has successfully lowered production costs for modules to under EUR 0.50/Wp, nearly less than half of the previous generation. These lower production costs can be primarily attributed to the ability of production lines to manufacture increasingly thinner films with optimized material usage.

The photovoltaics end market is currently concentrated on Europe, United States, and Japan. Oerlikon Solar is expecting Asia to be a region with high growth potential in the future, after recently receiving its first order for a ThinFabTM line from an Asian customer.

About Oerlikon Solar
Oerlikon Solar designs and manufactures field-proven equipment and end-to-end manufacturing lines for the mass production of environmentally sustainable thin film silicon solar modules. With its amorphous and high-efficiency Micromorph® tandem technology, Oerlikon has dramatically increased the efficiency of thin film silicon and created innovative end-to-end manufacturing solutions for thin film PV, enabling new entrants in the fast-growing, global PV manufacturing business. Oerlikon Solar leads the thin film solar equipment sector with 14 customers in production in seven countries, and almost 4 million modules and 450 MW of capacity produced worldwide.
Oerlikon Solar has Micromorph® patents dating back to 1993, was the first to integrate the high-efficiency Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) layer, and the first to commercialize the high-efficiency Micromorph® process and support the majority of its customers in migrating to it. To date it is the only proven end-to-end Micromorph® solution available on the market, offering lowest cost of electricity $/kWh, and proving highest future cost reduction potential.
Oerlikon Solar is headquartered in Switzerland, has about 700 employees in 13 locations worldwide, numerous production sites around the globe and maintains sales and service centers in the USA, Europe, China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Japan.

Oerlikon Solar Ltd, Trubbach
Hauptstrasse 1a
CH-9477 Trubbach

Simone Ramser
Head of Communications
Tel. +41 81 784 8141
Mobile +41 79 314 1197
Fax. +41 81 784 6544
simone-lisa.ramser@oerlikon.com
www.oerlikon.com/solar

This release was published on openPR.