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The 1st EPIA International Thin Film Conference

With an increasing number of new companies entering the market, EPIA aimed at providing a platform for discussion to the Thin Film Industry.
The objective of the 1st EPIA International Thin Film Conference was to present the state-of-art of PV Thin Film and to offer an excellent opportunity to network with Thin Film's most knowledgable experts.  It also aimed at further strengthening and increasing the share and the role of Thin Film technologies in the worldwide PV market for the future.

The Conference provided an insight on global market trends, the latest technological achievements, successful investments in the sector and a full analysis from material and equipment suppliers to module manufacturers.

History

Since 2005, EPIA and the JRC’s Renewable Energies Unit have been organizing each winter in Ispra, Italy, the International workshop on Thin Films in the Photovoltaic sector which was initiated by Bernhard Dimmler, Würth Solar, Germany. In the meantime the workshop has established itself as a discussion and brainstorming event for the Thin Film PV Industry.

Potential for cost reduction, standardization, recycling and lifetime performance were some of topics covered during the last workshop on 22 and 23 November 2007.
Please find more information about the 3rd international workshop on Thin Film.

Background

Photovoltaic solar electricity systems have the potential to deliver electricity on a large scale at competitive cost in the near future. One of the main obstacles of PV today in serving as an important energy source is the high production cost of the PV module.

Today PV is dominated by wafer-based Crystalline Silicon Technology as the “working horse” in the global market (around 90% market-share in 2007). Thin Film technologies have the highest cost reduction potential of all PV technologies in the mid and long term. Currently, the Thin Film materials used are amorphous / microcrystalline Silicon and the compound polycrystalline semiconductors CdTe and CIS (CIS belongs to the material family of Cu (In,Ga)(Se,S)2). They are all developing fast and are already in the status of small startups to large scale productions.