BESPOKE SOLAR PANELS SOON TO BE MADE IN FRANCE

Sunwind Energy has revolutionised the world of solar panels by designing eV+, semi-rigid solar panels, which are modulable in both size and shape, 100% integrable on supports such as ski lift stations, cable cars and conveyor belts. The product is particularly well suited to the mountain environment and guarantees excellent yield, thanks to its microcrystalline cells. With the support of Ines, CEA and with a financial boost from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, the company has given itself 2-3 years to manufacture its own panels from A to Z, at its Villard-Bonnot facility. “We want a product with efficient, recyclable and bio-sourced cells, using European products. Scandinavia could supply the silicon, France could provide recyclable or recycled polymer and it could be assembled in France”, points out Xavier Duport, manager of Sunwind Energy. The company will not produce classic frame solar panels but will stick to its niche, offering new technologies and new shapes: a lightweight panel which is completely integrated into façades or roofing, by removing the aluminium and glass. The company hopes to become the producer of bespoke solar panels.

Its prototype, financed thanks to an initial subsidy of 100,000€, and tested in the lab at Ines, should be validated in September 2023.

For Xavier Duport, all the lights are on green, with a government eager to accelerate the development of renewable energy and Europe which hopes to bring solar engineering to its shores. Into the bargain are the financial means to regain control of sourcing, while designing high yield cells. While China produces more than 80% of cells worldwide, France’s key strength is its R&D, “since the solar panel boom at the start of the 2000s”. Just one example among many, CEAInes’ heterojunction cells offer a record yield of almost 25%.

By Véronique Pilon