Advanced Manufacturing of Renewable Plants

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology plays a vital role in Europe’s energy landscape, contributing 3.1% to EU- 28 gross electricity generation in 2020 (Eurostat). Projections indicate its potential to satisfy 20% of the EU’s electricity demand by 2040 (BloombergNEF). However, the latest generation of PV technologies, renowned for their high performance and adaptability in various domains such as building-integrated PV (BIPV), vehicle-integrated PV (VIPV), agrivoltaics, and internet-of-things (IoT) devices, pose challenges due to their complexity.

Despite offering substantial opportunities for the European industry, these advanced technologies are susceptible to critical defects arising from minor deviations in manufacturing standards, resulting in significant production waste. Additionally, their high complexity necessitates the development of cost-effective techniques to enable large-scale production and utilization. This workshop convenes EU-funded collaborative projects dedicated to developing and demonstrating flexible automated manufacturing methods for the new generation PV design at pilot line level. These initiatives focus on innovative approaches, including robust inline process and quality control techniques, integration of industry 4.0 concepts, artificial intelligence, and leveraging big data for enhanced efficiency.

Contributing projects:

• Platform-ZERO
• SEAMLESS-PV
• SuperTandem
• ENGINE

Session Chair:

Victor Izquierdo, IREC – Régis Decorme, R2M Solution – Giulio Poggiaroni, SEAMLESS-PV – Martina Chopart, SuperTandem – Anssi Laukkanen, VTT