"Balancing Scientific and Commercial Progress of Polymeric Materials for Future Requirements"

The market for materials used in photovoltaic solar cells and modules is rapidly accelerating and expected to reach approximately $15 billion by 2015 according to industry research. Germany alone renowned for its photovoltaic stance and having long been the world leader has installed about 17.2 gigawatts of photovoltaics by 2010 and predicted to install a further 6 gigawatts in the past year. (Source: PV Magazine)

With continuous photovoltaic demand and evolving technologies, polymers are taking centre stage as significant materials used for solar module fabrication. From EVA to PMMA to EPDM and polyamide, different types of polymers are utilized for frontsheet, backsheet, encapsulant, barrier films, adhesives and many other applications in a solar module. Polymers have an array of flexible properties that is necessary to ensure reliability and durability of the solar modules. Furthermore, polymers have the advantage of being more cost-effective and light-weight; resulting in an overall reduction in manufacturing cost of solar modules.

Held in the heart of Europe's solar valley cluster in Leipzig, CMT's 2nd Polymer Apps in PV brings leading industry experts of material technologists, polymer research scientists and photovoltaic module producers to deliberate the progress and developments in polymers applicable to photovoltaic.

Snapshot of Key Sessions:

• New frame concepts for building integrated systems using polyurethanes
• Findings on the mechanical properties of encapsulants on the stresses of PV modules
• Advantages of PV backsheet from bio-based polyamide resins derived from castor beans
• Optimization in backsheet design using various polymers and correlation to module performance
• Advancements in extrusion technogy for the production of EVA film
• Application and integration of organic solar cells into building facades by Konarka
• Novel interconnection techniques using conductive adhesives
• Meeting temperature, weather and safety standards: Halogen-free polyamide for PV components

And many more!

Why Leipzig?

The Solar Valley just outside Bitterfeld-Wolfen has made the Halle-Leipzig region in Central Germany a major centre of the photovoltaic industry. Solar Valley fronts 29 companies including Q-Cells and Bosch Solar Energy as well as nine research centres such as Fraunhofer CSP. Their shared aims are to establish Central Germany as the world's foremost region for PV and; as they harness new advances in solar technology, to achieve grid parity by 2013 - the point at which solar power is finally no more expensive than conventional electricity.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

• BioSolar, Inc.
• BayerMaterialScience AG
• Krempel GmbH Solar Materials
• Institute for Applied Photophysics (IAPP)
• Fraunhofer CSP
• Madico, Inc.
• Renolit Belgium
• Konarka Technologies
• Rhodia Polyamide

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

• Vice President/GM/Director for Technology/R&D
• Technical Sales & Marketing Managers
• Product/Market Development Managers
• Senior Research Engineers/R&D Managers
• Material Development Managers/Engineers
• Photovoltaic Laboratory Managers
• Innovation/New Markets Managers
• Specialty polymer/material companies
• PV module and component manufacturers
• Researchers and test institutes

Solutia - well organised conference with a lot of interesting presentation

Toyobo - Good to know many person in PV field in only two days

Polyplex – Informative , Knowledgeable

Hanwha Solarone - very useful and informative

Krempel - The conference and most of the presentation was very good, it is the best that I saw last 9 month in China

Coveme – interesting

Townsend Solution – informative, educational , a good learning experience about the PV industry

NDC – A very professional set of paper presented by industry expert

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