Solar meets Glass
1st Industry Summit for Production, Logistics and Technology
27 - 28 September 2010
jointly organised by Solarpraxis AG and Messe Düsseldorf GmbH
as a side event of the "solarpeq", international trade fair for solar production equipment
The conference
For the first time Solarpraxis AG, renowned service provider in the solar energy sector with long-term experience in engineering as well as in organizing of conferences, and Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, as competent partners with long standing experience in the areas of solar and glass, established a platform for the discussion of pressing issues of the solar and the glass industry.
The „SOLAR MEETS GLASS - 1st Industry Summit for Production, Logistics and Technology“ brings the solar and glass industry together in order to discuss the current issues of both sectors. After a market and technology overview of photovoltaics and glass, the focus will be on the topics of quality, cost reduction and logistics.
Participants can profit from the intensive exchange, focusing on current topics such as:
- What is the status quo and outlook of the global PV markets?
- How can the solar industry profit from the experiences made by the glass industry?
- Which glass technologies can provide further improvements for costs and quality?
- What are the best glass production strategies suitable for the PV industry?
- What impact does site selection and logistics have on production costs?
On the topic
With the further optimization of efficiency and the imperative of cost reduction, the material glass will play a determining role in solar modules.The more the overall prices of other components as well as module prices decrease, the more dramatically the costs for glass as a part of the total costs will increase. The quality of the used glass has a great influence on the efficiency and the actual yield of the modules.Therefore, it is important to optimize the glass quality for the solar industry while reducing the production costs at the same time. Moreover, with the establishment of new PV markets worldwide and against the background of the weight and sensitivity of glass components, the question of (transport) logistics and location for the production of glass is becoming more relevant. The possibilities of the differentiation and the restructuring of the production process of glass at suitable locations could lead to considerable cost reductions for the solar industry. The solar market is offering more and more interesting fields of distribution for the glass industry - in photovoltaics alone, approximately 100,000,000 sqm will be sold in 2010. The market prognoses expect a worldwide increase to > 1 billion sqm/a in 2030. Up to now and with just a few exceptions, there has not been an intensive exchange between the developers and the strategists of the glass and solar industry. This is also true for the area of production technology development and for the system integrators in the solar sector. Thus, for example, in regard to the development of frames and fastening elements, there is very often a lack of extensive know-how on the topic of glass as well as in the area of BIPV.
Target groups
- Solar module manufacturers for thin-film as well as crystalline PV
- Equipment suppliers from the glass and solar industry
- Automation technology suppliers
- Solar system integrators and manufacturers of mounting systems for PV-plants
- Glass manufacturers
- System providers for glass applications and mounting systems for glass
- Investors, banks, analysts
Especially the management levels are addressed here (CEOs, CTOs), but also product managers, developers and purchasers from glass and solar industry companies and equipment manufacturers as well.
