Silicon Competence Center
July 1 2012 – June 30 2014
The Netherlands has a fantastic starting position for high qualitative research in the area of crystalline silicon solar-energy: a number of market-leading industrial parties, a number of big chemical groups that develop materials for solar-energy, and top institutes in the area of nano-technology. On top of this, ECN Solar Energy has build quite a name for themselves in this area. This position has to be improved upon now, by combining the facilities that are currently present in the Netherlands and to bring those up-to-date. This project aims to achieve this under the supervision of the industrial parties that know exactly what is required. With this project the infrastructure will be mapped and the first step will be made towards combining these facilities, such that industry and knowledge institutes can perform their developments within the Netherlands and no longer have to go abroad. This reduces the development-time and costs for all of these parties and makes it possible for the Netherlands to connect with the rest of world.
The most important target of this project is to implement as much Dutch-made technology in the standardization of the production process of these solar-panels and to make the Dutch industry leading in this area. The throughput and costs of experiments should be halved and the solar-cells that will be made in the trial period on average have to achieve a higher efficiency then what is currently common in the industry.
To achieve this, significant investments will be made in infrastructure and equipment. Beyond this, knowledge and experience will be bundled of all relevant parties to develop the technology for the new solar-cell standard.
