In the course of this project, the results from the Flisom development line, located in Dübendorf on the Empa campus, and more than 10 years of research cooperation on national and international level get transferred into a 15 MW pilot production line to demonstrate the market readiness of commercially viable large volume (100MW plus) production plants. Key target is to demonstrate fully industrially functionality of the pilot production plant producing IEC qualified solar modules, which are of relevant interest to the market. This will enable Flisom to enter in the commercialization phase and to generate growing revenues to become self-sustainable. During the whole project a very close collaboration between Flisom and Empa was desired and required on regards of process development. With Empa‘s vast experience in the Cu(In,Ga)Se2-technology the transfer from development to production will be accelerated to the benefit of Flisom. Further Empa’s large analytical experience and capabilities in this material family will easily help to identify areas of improvement for further progress. For the year 2016 the goals have been to start up the equipment in the Niederhasli facility achieving required tool and process conditions which allow the transfer of the Flisom technology developed on a 50cm wide flexible polymer substrate at the development line in Dübendorf. To show the readiness of the equipment process relevant parameters have to be achieved. Beyond setting the tools to the desired conditions the ramp-up of the pilot production line has to start and first products and production relevant results will be demonstrated. The focus here is to ensure a smooth transition of the process from development to production. This means beyond pure production related parameters also improvement on the equipment and processes must be continued to ensure best results. In the year 2017 the focus has been on ramping up production without ignoring improvement of the processes. In addition, development and manufacturing of product and gaining international certificates for this product is equally important. During the whole project work improvement of module efficiency is continuously worked on. Production capabilities of the line have shown continuous improvement over the course of the months and reliability and stability of equipment and process continuously improved. Also product development has shown very good progress with developing three different platforms, which allow to serve three market segments of high interest: building, mobility and special applications. During the project first orders have been received and a first installation of totally 30kW was realized partially on a façade and a roof. Besides commercial projects also a small installation of 2.5kW at the Flisom building was set-up to collect outdoor data and investigate the performance of the modules. Although not all milestones have been reached as planned the project is considered successful as it helped Flisom to expedite its way into commercialization and the orders and inquiries received are prove for this success.
