Oerlikon Solar wins the Solar Industry Award for the third time in a row

EU PVSEC Hamburg (Germany) / Trubbach (Switzerland), September 6, 2011 Oerlikon Solar has been honored the Solar Industry Award in the category of “Thin Film Innovations” for the third time in a row. The international prize is awarded annually by the British trade magazine Solar PV Management. The jury selected Oerlikon Solar's new production line ThinFabTM as the winner of the "Thin Film Innovation Award". The awards ceremony was held at the 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) in Hamburg. "The presentation of the Solar Industry Award 2011 for our ThinFabTM fills us with pride, and in addition to the sale of our first 120 MW micromorph® production line to Asia, confirms the high level of acceptance and innovative strength of our thin film silicon solar technology," comments Helmut Frankenberger, CEO of Oerlikon Solar.

The award-winning ThinFabTM from Oerlikon Solar is a manufacturing system for the mass production of ecologically sustainable thin film silicon solar modules. In June 2011, a customer from Asia placed the first order for a complete 120 MW micromorph® production line (ThinFabTM). Oerlikon Solar has also received upgrade orders from various existing customers since the ThinFabTM was introduced into the market.

ThinFabTM offers the following advantages:

• Production costs: ThinFabTM reduces the "Total Cost of Ownership" for solar
modules to EUR 0.50/Wp, the lowest number in the solar industry.

• Energy efficiency: Compared to other solar manufacturing processes, the production of Oerlikon thin film silicon modules requires the least amount of energy. The "energy payback time" with Oerlikon technology is less than one year.

• Practical benefits: Thin film silicon modules offer great advantages under real operational conditions, e.g. cloudy skies or high temperatures, where crystalline solar cell efficiency declines significantly.

• Environmentally friendly: Thin film silicon modules do not contain toxic additives such as cadmium.

• Sustainability: Oerlikon’s solar technology has further potential for increased efficiency and productivity as demonstrated by ThinFab Lab's world record cell with an efficiency of 11.9%.

Oerlikon Solar modules are suitable for all roof types and open-space applications. Their attractive design and transparency also makes them suitable for integration into buildings. "Winning the Solar Industry Award for the third time has confirmed our investments in research and development, and our pioneering position in the field of thin film technology. We will continue to offer our customers top-notch production quality with competitive cost efficiency in the future," explains Peter Tinner, Head of Sales & Marketing at Oerlikon Solar.

About Oerlikon Solar
Oerlikon Solar designs and manufactures field-proven equipment and turnkey 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 turnkey 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.