DuPont unveils new Geneva solar technology lab

DuPont opened a new research and development centre this week in the canton of Geneva that is geared to capitalizing on the booming solar technology business.

The five-million-dollar photovoltaic application laboratory is located in the American multinational’s European Technical Center in Meyrin.

Ellen Kullman, DuPont chair and CEO, and Ian Hudson, Europe, Middle East and Africa president of DuPont, were on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremonies on Monday.

The laboratory is seeking solutions for the generation and storage of renewable energy, “the fastest growing sector in the energy market for the next 20 years,” Kullman said.

“We can apply the power of our market-driven science to offer products and technologies that can transform the sun’s potential into clean energy, contributing to decreasing dependence on fossil fuels.”

The 400-square-metre laboratory is headed by British expat Philip Boydell, a native of Bolton, England, who has worked for DuPont in Geneva for more than 20 years.

The facility employs a dozen scientists and technicians whose aim is to bring solar energy technology to “grid parity,” Boydell told Swisster.

Roughly translated, that means making electricity derived from the sun competitive in price with other conventional sources of power provided by utilities.

The goal is to “reduce the cost of installed systems . . . to make them more efficient and easier to install,” Boydell said.

Solar systems are most economic in places where the general price for electricity is high – such as Italy – and where there is a lot of sunshine, the materials solutions expert said.

One of the lab’s first projects is providing the technology for a waterproof roof tile that doubles as a solar panel, he said.

The product, which has been developed in conjunction with DuPont’s Luxembourg branch, is set to be commercialized in France by March, Boydell said.

“The French government offers the most attractive incentives for photovoltaic modules,” he said, explaining why DuPont has selected that market to launch the solar tile product.

The company is working with 15 industrial partners, with actual production of the panels to be outsourced, he indicated.

The product “will be introduced afterwards in Italy and Greece and probably in Switzerland too in a later phase,” Magali Dauwalder, spokeswoman for DuPont Switzerland, told Swisster.

Laboratory staff “are working directly with clients and a network of DuPont labs, including ones in the United States and China,” Dauwalder said.

They are also working with industrial partners, institutes and researchers from universities and technical institutes, such as Lausanne’s Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), she said.

Among other projects, the laboratory is looking at high to boost the efficiency of solar cells and it is also studying how to produce solar modules faster, Dauwalder said.

DuPont anticipates that the photovoltaic market will grow by 30 percent this year alone.

And the company, which has been involved in the business for more than 25 years, expects its sales in the sector will grow from more than 500 million dollars in 2009 to more than one billion dollars by 2012.

Among its trademark products are “metallization pastes”, which coat a layer of metal on panels to electrically connect different solar cells, Boydell said.

Materials for “encapsulant sheets”, another product, secure the cells mechanically while transmitting maximum sunlight to cells, he said.

DuPont also produces polyvinyl fluoride films, used to protect the back of panels.

In addition to its technical centre in Meyrin, the company runs its regional headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa out of Geneva, where 450 people work from an office building in Le Grand-Saconnex.