Flisom open for orders for flexible CIGS panels
Company already working with automotive, aerospace, and transportation companies to create custom solar-integrated solutions
Flisom AG, a Swiss start-up, has announced it is open for orders for its range of lightweight, flexible CIGS-based solar modules. The modules are under 2mm thick and offer up to 50 times the power-to-weight ratio of silicon PV panels, according to the company.
Backed by Tata Industries, a group of Swiss investors and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), Filsom has developed a "˜roll to roll' manufacturing process which can replicate the laboratory success of CIGS solar technology on an industrial scale.
It is already scaling up production in Switzerland to fulfil incoming orders and scouting for locations globally for further scale up. The company is already working with leading global automotive, aerospace, and transportation companies to create custom solar-integrated solutions, for cars, UAVs and public transportation carriages.
Over the past few years, Flisom has received significant investment from Tata Industries (part of the $100bn Tata group) and a group of Swiss investors. Over the next year, Flisom will be targeting opportunities in the UK, continental Europe and the United States.
K.R.S. Jamwal, executive director, Tata Industries said:"Tata has invested in cutting-edge and future technologies to be able to re-imagine and reinvent businesses for the future. We are proud that our support has enabled Flisom to create the best and most efficient flexible solar panels available anywhere in the world. It will enable solar to be used in ways and in places never possible before, such as in transportation and aerospace, and much more effectively on all roofs."
"We've taken our time to engineer a product that looks better and performs better than the competition,' explained Flisom's Chief Executive Officer, Rahul Budhwar.
"Our modules boast high efficiency, coupled with a stylish, jet black aesthetic and flexible light form factor, meaning they can be used on products and in places where adoption of solar energy was not possible before "“ like cars, light weight roofs and drones. We're already working with a range of leading aerospace, building and transportation companies to make our vision of enabling solar everywhere a reality.
"We can scale up industrial production in a way that hasn't been possible before for flexible CIGS solar technology "“ meaning Flisom's modules have the potential to radically transform the way the world uses solar."
Gian-Luca Bona, CEO of Empa, said: "Empa researchers hold the world record for energy conversion efficiency in a CIGS solar cell "“ and our technology, in turn, forms the core of Flisom's transformative solar modules. We are delighted to host the first full-scale Flisom pilot installation on our campus where it will supply sustainable energy for "˜move', our demonstration platform for future mobility."
