Finnish supplier of thin film coating equipment, Beneq, has joined R2R-CIGS, a high-profile photovoltaics project financed by the EU Commission through its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The primary aim of this ambitious project is to scale-up innovative laboratory processes to meet production requirements for flexible solar modules. In short, these processes need to be adapted to roll-to-roll production while ensuring reliability, high throughput and low cost. Beneq is a leading authority in ALD roll-to-roll technology, having launched the first commercial research platform for spatial ALD, the TFS 200R, in 2009 and the first roll-to-roll system for wide flexible substrates, the WCS 500 in June 2011. In addition to Beneq, the project consortium includes EMPA, Flisom, ZSW, Isovoltaic, SoLayTec, Mondragon Assembly, Manz CIGS Technology and CPI. It is coordinated by TNO.
