Solidarity with Photovoltaics
The glass and solar industries agree to work more intensively together at the solarpeq/glasstec.
The glass and solar industries could benefit heavily from one another. However, they have not quite managed to get together up to now. Solarpeq, the new sister exhibition to glasstec, is now paving the way for closer cooperation and synergies.
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Photo gallery to the topic Solidarity with Photovoltaics
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Successful debut: solarpeq, which took place this year for the first time, was a complete success. Countless visitors came.
(Picture: Messe Düsseldorf)
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Hightech live: Grenzebach presented several new machines to produce thin-layer modules in Düsseldorf. Here, a robot is lifting a glass pane up without touching it.
(Picture: Messe Düsseldorf)
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Flexible modules: Lisec from Austria places panels between two glass panes, which are only 2 mm thick. This makes them virtually indestructible.
(Picture: Messe Düsseldorf)
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Big seller: Glass roller systems from Fickert + Winterling currently very popular. The company exports predominantly to China.
(Picture: Messe Düsseldorf)
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Intense listening: At the solarpeq conference “Solar meets Glass”, the solar and glass industries agreed to cooperate more closely together in the future. Almost 200 participants were there.
(Picture: Messe Düsseldorf)
Glass production is a hard business: At more than 1000 °C, sand, lime, soda and flinders are melted down before being made into, for example, windows, bottles and industrial glass. Such an industry might not really fit together so well with filigree photovoltaics (PV) – or that is the initial thought. However, glass is a key product for solar energy: More and more frequently, thin panes are ending up in photovoltaic installations on household roofs. And vice versa, the glass industry is benefiting from the solar boom. Because while business with packaging glass is barely increasing, solar glass sales are rising dramatically. “The demand from the solar industry is helping some glass machine constructors to experience a small boom,” says Bernd-Holger Zippe, head of Zippe Industrieanlagen and chairperson of the VDMA-Forums Glastechnik.
Solarpeq, which for the first time took place simultaneously to the world's most significant glass industry exhibition, glasstec, from 28 September to 01 October, took into account the increasing significance of solar technology for making glass. Even during the prelude to the trade fair, the foundation stones for closer corporation between the two industries were laid: At the solarpeq conference “Solar meets Glass”, leading representatives from industry agreed to define a joint roadmap for products and applications – this would be a decisive step for further innovations and cost reductions. Hans Werner Reinhard, the deputy managing director of the Messe Düsseldorf, spoke with the same level of satisfaction after the event, “We have achieved an important milestone: The glass industry is speaking to the solar industry.” Now, the dialogue must be intensified. “We will help to ensure that this happens with further events,” announced Reinhard.
