Flisom

Flisom AG

Type	Aktiengesellschaft, Private
Founded	2005
Headquarters	Dübendorf, Switzerland
Website	www.flisom.ch

Flisom is a developer and manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) thin film solar cells, located near Zurich, Switzerland. The company produces high-efficiency CIGS thin film solar modules on flexible plastic foil using proprietary roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques.

These light-weight solar modules suggest the feasibility of reducing module costs below €0.35 ($0.39) per watt-peak (W_p) and to bring down the overall costs for fully installed solar PV systems below €0.60/W_p ($0.67/W_p).^[1] This is about half the cost of conventional PV technology based on crystalline silicon.^[2]:15

Potential applications for flexible CIGS modules include utility-scale solar farms, building integrated and applied photovoltaics (BIPV, BAPV), as well as transportation and portable power systems.^[1]

History

Flisom AG was founded in 2005 as a spin-off company of ETH Zurich, and has a long-standing research partnership with Empa – the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, which has been developing this type of flexible solar cell to world record efficiencies of 20.4%.^[3][4] The world record for CIGS cells in laboratory conditions has since been further increased by ZSW (German: Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung) and stands at 21.7% as of July 2015.^[5][6] Since this record was achieved on glass substrate, Flisom`s research partner Empa is still the holder of the world record with 20.4% cell efficiency on a polymeric substrate.

Technology

The company's production technology is based on a roll-to-roll manufacturing process of flexible solar modules, involving deposition of thin films of CIGS absorber material onto a polymer foil substrate made of polyimide. The key processes of depositing the absorber material in this manner has been proprietarily developed by the company itself. As of 2015, a 15 MW pilot production line is being commissioned in a new facility in Niederhasli, near Zurich, Switzerland.^[7]

See also

• List of CIGS companies
• Solar Frontier
• Thin film solar cell
• Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

References

1. "With pilot plant inaugurated, Swiss PV start-up Flisom ready—Press Release 2015". Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs. 12 June 2015.
2. http://www.iea.org (2014). "Technology Roadmap: Solar Photovoltaic Energy" (PDF). IEA. Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
3. "Empa signs collaboration agreement with start-up". Retrieved 27 July 2015.
4. "Empa takes thin film solar cells to a new level – A new world record for solar cell efficiency work=Empa". 18 January 2013. Retrieved July 2015.
5. "ZSW + Manz Achieve 21% Conversion Efficiency With Cadmium-Free CIGS Solar Cell". CleanTechnia. 26 February 2015.
6. "Research Cell Efficiency Records – latest charts". NREL. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
7. "With pilot plant inaugurated, Swiss PV start-up Flisom ready to take off". 12 June 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2015.

External links

• Flisom: Flexible PV from Lab to Fab (presentation, U. Rühle, 4 November 2014)
• Empa Laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics (webpage Empa)