Aug 31 2010
DuPont recently announced plans to double production capacity for its market-leading DuPont™ Solamet® photovoltaic (PV) metallization pastes, based on strong, continued growth in the solar energy industry and accelerated demand for new materials that enable higher efficiency PV cells.
As part of DuPont’s efforts to help reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, the capacity increase is consistent with the company’s expectation that its sales into PV applications will exceed $1 billion in 2011 and $2 billion by 2014.
“We are seeing extremely strong demand from our customers, while the supply of certain materials in the PV market has been tight,” said Dave Miller, president – DuPont Electronics & Communications. “This additional capacity expansion demonstrates our commitment to decreasing dependence on fossil fuels by meeting our customers’ needs for materials that increase the efficiency of solar cells and modules. By increasing efficiency, Solamet® paste helps reduce overall system costs, thereby making PV power more competitive with other forms of electricity generation.”
The planned capacity expansion which will more than double the production capacity for Solamet® products for the PV industry, involves DuPont Microcircuit Materials facilities in Manati, Puerto Rico; Dongguan, China; and Taoyuan, Taiwan. Completion of the work is expected in 2011.
DuPont™ Solamet® photovoltaic metallization pastes are made from silver and other materials, which collect electricity produced by the solar cell and transport it out of the cell. They play a critical role in how efficiently PV modules turn sunlight into electricity. The advances made by DuPont in the field of front- and back-side metallization contacts have resulted in significant efficiency gains for solar cell technology.
DuPont™ Solamet® photovoltaic metallizations are part of the broad and growing portfolio of products represented by DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions, which connects science and technology from across the company on a global scale to help support the dramatic growth of the photovoltaic industry.