http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/solar-by-technology-renewable-energy-news/eu-launches-project-to-increase-european-solar-cell-efficiency.html

Austria-based thin-wafer equipmpent supplier Mechatronic Systemtechnik and eight other company and institutional partners have been selected by the European Commission to increase the efficiency of solar cells.

With a budget of €7m, the project looks to raise the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) cells to around 20 per cent with the aim of ensuring that Europe’s energy supply can meet future needs and strengthen the continent’s photovoltaic industry.
A twin project goal is to reduce the silicon content from eight grammes to three grammes per watt by bringing the wafer thickness down from what is currently typical, 180 micrometres, to 50 micrometres.
The company has been chosen as a technology partner alongside four other thin-film solar companies for a three-year European Union (EU) project that was launched at the start of this month.
Other companies involved in the project are Eni, Mechatronic Systemtechnik, Photovoltech, PSE and Q-Cells, all of which contribute expertise in thin film solar cells and modules.
‘In the PV sector, too, the trend is clearly towards thin wafers and that is the field we specialise in,’ said Walter Schober, CEO of Mechatronic Systemtechnik.
Schober said, ‘The EU project offers us the opportunity, as a qualified partner, to be present when new technologies start being developed and to feed our accumulated know-how with new products for the PV market.’
The additional partners in the project include European research institutes Ecoles Polytechniques Fédérales de Lausanne, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, the National Renewable Energy Centre and the University of Konstanz.
Mechatronic Systemtechnik, which is based in Villach in Austria, has developed, manufactured and marketed specialised machinery for the semiconductor industry since 1998.