Meyer Burger Technology : and CSEM extend collaboration for the joint development of novel solar cells and modules

Meyer Burger and CSEM ex­tend col­lab­o­ra­tion for the joint de­vel­op­ment of novel solar cells and mod­ules

• Long-standing research partner supports Meyer Burger for another three years in Switzerland
• Current milestone: Record breaking crystalline silicon solar cell with 25.4 percent certified efficiency

Meyer Burger Tech­nol­ogy Ltd (SIX Swiss Ex­change: MBTN) ex­tends the ex­ist­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Swiss re­search and de­vel­op­ment cen­ter CSEM. The sci­en­tists from CSEM and Meyer Burger Re­search, the sub­sidiary re­spon­si­ble for re­search and de­vel­op­ment, have been work­ing suc­cess­fully on new tech­nolo­gies for the pro­duc­tion of highly ef­fi­cient solar cells and mod­ules for more than seven years. The focus of this work is on the trans­fer of new pho­to­voltaic tech­nolo­gies to in­dus­trial mass pro­duc­tion to­wards av­er­age man­u­fac­tur­ing ef­fi­cien­cies at mod­ule level ex­ceed­ing 24% and the cor­re­spond­ing re­duc­tion of man­u­fac­tur­ing costs.

'We are very pleased to con­tinue our col­lab­o­ra­tion with CSEM. They have sup­ported us sig­nif­i­cantly in the de­vel­op­ment of our pro­pri­etary Het­ero­junc­tion/SmartWire tech­nol­ogy and made an im­por­tant con­tri­bu­tion to the fur­ther com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of our tech­nol­ogy', says Gunter Er­furt, CEO of Meyer Burger Tech­nol­ogy Ltd. The mile­stone cur­rently achieved is the de­vel­op­ment of a cell process that achieves re­mark­able ef­fi­cien­cies. Fraun­hofer ISE cer­ti­fied an ef­fi­ciency of 25.4 per­cent for solar cells on stan­dard in­dus­trial wafers man­u­fac­tured at the Meyer Burger Re­search Cen­ter in Neuchâtel, in close col­lab­o­ra­tion with CSEM. This is one of the high­est ef­fi­cien­cies re­ported on in­dus­trial wafer so far. The process uses con­tacts on the back to con­vert ad­di­tional sun­light into elec­tric­ity and of­fers per­spec­tive for the sim­pli­fied, com­pet­i­tive cost man­u­fac­tur­ing, ultra-high ef­fi­ciency crys­talline sil­i­con mod­ules.

'Meyer Burger has been a trust­ful part­ner for many years now, and we could help them in build­ing up an amaz­ing tech­nol­ogy port­fo­lio. It will allow them to play an im­por­tant role in PV man­u­fac­tur­ing over the com­ing years,' says Christophe Bal­lif, Vice Pres­i­dent of the CSEM and Di­rec­tor of the CSEM PV Cen­ter.

Matthieu De­speisse, re­spon­si­ble for mod­ule and het­ero­junc­tion ac­tiv­i­ties at the CSEM, adds: 'It is a great plea­sure for the many sci­en­tists, en­gi­neers and tech­ni­cians at CSEM to see their pro­jects and con­cepts being im­ple­mented in the in­dus­try. Our team is highly mo­ti­vated to ac­com­pany and sup­port Meyer Burger on its new path'.

The col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween Meyer Burger and CSEM orig­i­nated in 2008 through a co­op­er­a­tion with the EPFL (École poly­tech­nique fédérale de Lau­sanne). In 2013, the co­op­er­a­tion with the CSEM Pho­to­voltaic Cen­ter was ex­panded. Part of the re­search and in­dus­tri­al­i­sa­tion ef­fort was sup­ported by funds from the Eu­ro­pean Union, In­no­su­isse, Swiss Fed­eral Of­fice of En­ergy, the Fed­eral Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and Re­search, and the Fed­eral Min­istry for Eco­nomic Af­fairs and En­ergy in Ger­many.

Media con­tacts:

Meyer Burger Tech­nol­ogy AG

Anne Schnei­der

Head Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions

Tel [phone] | Mob [phone]

anne.​schneider@​meyerburger.​com

Dy­nam­ics Group AG

An­dreas Durisch, Se­nior Part­ner

Tel [phone] | Mob [phone]

adu@​dyn​amic​sgro​up.​ch

CSEM

Prof Dr Christophe Bal­lif

Vice-Président Pho­to­voltaics

Tel [phone] | Mob [phone]

christophe.​ballif@​csem.​ch

About Meyer Burger Tech­nol­ogy Ltd
www.​meyerburger.​com

Meyer Burger is a lead­ing and glob­ally ac­tive tech­nol­ogy com­pany, spe­cial­is­ing in in­no­v­a­tive sys­tems and pro­duc­tion fa­cil­i­ties for the solar in­dus­try. The com­pany has shaped the de­vel­op­ment of pho­to­voltaics along the en­tire value chain and has set key in­dus­try stan­dards, such as di­a­mond wire saw tech­nol­ogy, the in­dus­trial PERC so­lu­tion and pre­ci­sion mea­sure­ment tech­nol­ogy for solar mod­ules. A large pro­por­tion of the solar mod­ules pro­duced world­wide today are based on tech­nolo­gies de­vel­oped by Meyer Burger.

In line with its new busi­ness model and strat­egy, Meyer Burger is trans­form­ing it­self into a man­u­fac­turer of high-per­for­mance pho­to­voltaic cells and mod­ules based on its pro­pri­etary het­ero­junc­tion/SmartWire tech­nol­ogy. With het­ero­junc­tion/SmartWire, the com­pany has de­vel­oped next gen­er­a­tion pho­to­voltaic tech­nol­ogy that is more ef­fi­cient and higher yield than the cur­rent stan­dard mono-PERC and other het­ero­junc­tion tech­nolo­gies cur­rently avail­able. Meyer Burger op­er­ates re­search and de­vel­op­ment cen­ters in Thun and Hau­terive, Switzer­land, and pro­duc­tion fa­cil­i­ties in Ger­many for the con­struc­tion of ma­chin­ery and equip­ment (Ho­hen­stein-Ern­st­thal) and from 2021 for the pro­duc­tion of solar cells (Bit­ter­feld-Wolfen) and solar mod­ules (Freiberg). The reg­is­tered shares of Meyer Burger Tech­nol­ogy Ltd are listed on the SIX Swiss Ex­change (Ticker: MBTN).

About CSEM
https://​www.​csem.​ch

Founded in 1984, the CSEM is a Swiss re­search and de­vel­op­ment cen­ter (pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ship) spe­cial­iz­ing in pho­to­voltaics, en­ergy man­age­ment, mi­crotech­nol­ogy, nan­otech­nol­ogy, mi­cro­elec­tron­ics, sys­tems en­gi­neer­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nolo­gies. Around 500 highly qual­i­fied spe­cial­ists from var­i­ous sci­en­tific and tech­ni­cal dis­ci­plines work for the CSEM in Neuchâtel, Zurich, Mut­tenz, Alp­nach and Landquart. The Pho­to­voltaic Cen­ter fo­cuses on novel pho­to­voltaic tech­nolo­gies and en­ergy sys­tems and has full R&D pilot lines for pho­to­voltaics, cells and ma­te­ri­als, in­clud­ing en­cap­su­la­tion man­u­fac­tur­ing and re­li­a­bil­ity test­ing. CSEM has also in­tro­duced mul­ti­ple in­no­va­tions for ar­chi­tec­ture and col­ored pho­to­voltaics, for light­weight mod­ules for space and mo­bil­ity ap­pli­ca­tions, as well as for high per­for­mance en­ergy scav­engers used, e.g., in watches. It also de­vel­ops news so­lu­tions in the field of dig­i­tal grids, elec­tro­chem­i­cal stor­age, and en­ergy man­age­ment.