Disasolar Announces Launch of Pilot Production Line for Fabrication of Tailor-Made Thin-Film PV Modules

On Dec. 12, Disasolar held a press conference with the president of the Limousin Regional Council’s attendance, Jean-Paul Denanot. Stephane Poughon, president of the flexible PV specialized SME, announced that it had initiated the inkjet OPV project with the support of the Strategic Industrial Innovation program run by OSEO, the French State innovation agency.

This is a major step in the ambitious program initiated by Disasolar in 2009, as it paves the way for establishing a dedicated industrial Consortium for implementing the organic PV facility (OPV) using inkjet printing technologies. Disasolar is working on this consortium along with several companies: Ceradrop, Cerinnov and Ceritherm, based in Limoges, CEA/INES based in Bourget-du-Lac, and In-Core Systèmes based in Lyon.

The inkjet OPV project aims at establishing an inkjet printing production line for the manufacturing of tailor-made organic PV modules. The pilot manufacturing line will be operational from 2016 with an initial production capacity of 25,000m2, approximately 1.5MWp. This global industrial asset will generate employment, an estimated 150 jobs in the region; delivering a 150MWp production capacity of 3rd generation solar modules per year, using an organic plastic compound.

This €16 million inkjet OPV project is financed 45% by OSEO, a €7.3M contribution. The remainder of the investment will be made up from the consortium’s industry partners.

This marks the beginning of a further step, for the French SME, in implementing an industrial inkjet printing fabrication process. The French printed electronics sector (AFELIM) is strengthened in order to secure new business for the further development of their market position linked to this technological breakthrough.

The consortium will bring CEA/INES together with the other partners in order to develop this technology. They provide their respective skills and expertise:

Ceradrop is an equipment manufacturer specialized in the design and marketing of inkjet printers. This patented technology enables functional material deposition for high added value fields such as electronics for aerospace, military, instrumentation and biomedical applications; and new energy technologies;

Cerinnov is an established equipment manufacturer providing tooling parts for all stages in the production of ceramics: forming (using high pressure casting machines), glazing, laser marking and decoration. Cerinnov also includes Cerlase, an R&D techno-center, set up on an innovative patented technology of laser sintering (process and device of marking by laser sintering of mineral powder on substrates in ceramics, glass and metal).

Ceritherm develops and implements turn-key industrial thermal installations. It offers its expertise in various fields such as ceramics, metallurgy, chemistry and electronics.

In-Core Systèmes is a leading technology company, whose expertise is concentrated around imaging systems and optical methods for surface inspection on continuous production processes. The company’s core activity is to design and manufacture automatic surface inspection systems based online scan cameras, high performance illumination and computer technology with its proprietary process software. This technology allows to control all types of surfaces such as security paper, composites, printed electronics, plastics, solar cells…

“OSEO’s confirmation to provide this support is good news to the company,” said Stephane Poughon, president of Disasolar. “This partnership goes beyond the funding of our projects as it represents the beginning of a new industry for us and the Limousin Region: France is well positioned to be a major player in the third-generation photovoltaic industry. Nowadays, too often the industrial gamble in France for the PV sector is said to be lost. Third generation photovoltaics, stemming from printed electronics, is vowed to provide energy to future connected devices and is seen as an opportunity to bring growth in the region through these technological innovations. We will be looking to raise equity in the weeks to come in order to strengthen our capital and accelerate our development.”