PVOpMaat: Making the integration of solar panels in buildings more efficient, aesthetically pleasing and less expensive.

A regional consortium of 8 knowledge institutes and a large number of companies bundled their efforts in a collaborative project that will run until the end of 2018 and has a budget of 7 million euro. The project is being implemented within the scope of the Flanders-Netherlands Interreg programme, with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund, the provinces Noord-Brabant, Flemish Brabant, Flemish and Dutch Limburg, the Netherlands ministry for Economic Affairs, and the ministry for North Rhine-Westphalia.

Based on newly developed manufacturing methods, the objective of the project is to change electricity-producing solar cell materials in such a way that they can be integrated perfectly in constructional elements. Examples of such products are already on the market, but the ambition to customise the production for specific dimensions in the construction industry is new and caters to the growing market for renovation and reducing the energy consumption of homes and buildings in answer to public policy.

The project will be led by Solliance, the public-private cooperation between companies and knowledge institutes focused on the development of thin film solar cells. Other centres involved are the Netherlands SEAC, the independent centre for the application of solar-energy systems and the Flemish EnergyVille, the energy centre for sustainable energy and intelligent energy systems. Within the consortium TNO acts as project coordinator; other participating research entities include ECN, imec, Holst Centre, ForschungsZentrum Jülich, the universities of Eindhoven, Hasselt and Leuven, and ZUYD.