IconIQ Greenfab launches a unique European Solar Panel

Zaanstad, 3 september 2020

Radovan Kopecek,

ISC Konstanz

“Backcontact technology could become main stream for roof top, building integration as well as for product integration, as there are several advantages that clearly overcompensate the past draw-backs. One of the major draw-backs was the costly IBC technology, which we disabled by the high efficient low cost ZEBRA technology. Let´s restart production in EU with combining the best technologies of EU´s leading institutes in future.  ”

Gaëtan Masson,

president ESMC

"This unique module of Energyra and it's partners offers a massive opportunity to the EU's advanced manufacturing industry and its suppliers. It also makes Europe less dependent of Asian imports, which recently fell sharply due to the Covid-19 crisis."

Daniël Kuijk,

general manager Energyra Europe

"The IconIQ solar panel combines two high-quality technologies, offering many advantages, such as lead-free, solder-free contacting and greatly improved robustness. The latter translates into an extraordinary lifetime of the IconIQ solar panel. The fact that our panel is not only lead-free, but also free of fluorine and PFAS certainly doesn't apply to mainstream panels. To achieve something like this, you need the entire value chain. IconIQ proves that we really can do that in Europe. ”

Maarten Wijdekop,

senior business developer TNO

"It’s fantastic to see that the module technology that has been developed by my colleagues at TNO is implemented in this high quality solar panel. Over the past 15 years we have worked hard to innovate and advance PV technologies, which are now being validated by the higher segments in the market. This votes for a sunny future of the European PV industry! ”

First milestone

This week, the “IconIQ” solar module, based on a technology developed by TNO (NL) and ISC Konstanz (DE), has been revealed by Dutch module producer Energyra. The solar panel entails a unique combination of two European technologies, which will also be produced in the EU. At Energyra, a first prototype was presented to Gaëtan Masson, co-chairman of the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC). 

These are the first steps of the IconIQ-Greenfab consortium, which is aiming to establish a high-end PV manufacturing activity in Europe. Energyra, ISC Konstanz and TNO play a leading role in this consortium, focusing on combining proven technologies into a high-quality mass product. This aligns very well with the objectives of ESMC, which represents all the stakeholders in the European PV manufacturing industry

Latest technology

The solar cells in the IconIQ module that drive its high performance are based on the ‘ZEBRA’ IBC (Interdigitated Back Contact) technology developed by ISC Konstanz, which is the lowest cost IBC technology reaching efficiencies up to 24% in production. The current technology reaches voltages above 700mV without the need of passivating contacts.   

The IconIQ module design is based on back-contact interconnection, an industrially proven concept that was developed by in the Netherlands by ECN (now part of TNO). Back-contact modules can realise superior efficiencies because of their low cell-to-module loss factor, and offer desirable aesthetics. Their form-factor is more flexible than that of conventional modules, which makes it easier to integrate.


More jobs, less CO2

To reduce its reliance on Asian imports, it is critical that the EU starts producing significant volumes of PV modules to address the growing demand of its home market, and allow European businesses to engage in the supply chains. The IconIQ-Greenfab consortium estimates that an annual production volume of 5GW will be sufficient to bring the cost of manufacturing to a level at which it can compete with Asian imports. An additional benefit is that a fully integrated EU supply chain combined with regional production of PV modules will significantly lower the carbon footprint of the PV modules, because long-distance transportation routes of some of the raw materials to China, and of the end product back to Europe, are avoided.
Establishing production of 5GW of PV modules pa in the EU will create an estimated 3000 new direct jobs in the PV industry, and a total of 15.000 jobs in total.