Intersolar Shows PV/Semi Synergies
As photovoltaics (PV) market growth continues to skyrocket, SEMI is furthering its PV initiative at this year’s SEMICON West. In addition to the more than 250 SEMICON West exhibitors showing their PV-related wares, Intersolar North America is co-located with the exhibition, located on the third floor in the West Hall of Moscone Center this week.
Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media -- PV Society, 7/15/2008
As photovoltaics (PV) market growth continues to skyrocket, SEMI is furthering its PV initiative at this year’s SEMICON West. In addition to the more than 250 SEMICON West exhibitors showing their PV-related wares, Intersolar North America is co-located with the exhibition, located on the third floor in the West Hall of Moscone Center this week. The idea is to play up the synergies between semiconductor and PV manufacturing.
With this show, Intersolar makes its North American debut. Done in partnership with Solar Promotion International GmbH, Freiburg Management and Marketing International GmbH (FMMI) and SEMI, it is being billed as the largest trade event serving the full solar energy supply chain in the United States. Intersolar North America includes ~200 exhibitors across the supply chain and, with almost a month to go before the show opened, more than 10,000 people had registered to attend, surpassing the organizers’ goal.
| Intersolar North America will address the entire solar energy supply chain, including photovoltaics manufacturing, which sees the most synergies with chipmaking technologies. (Source: Solar Promotion GmbH) |
"Intersolar Europe is already known as the world’s largest solar industry event," said Markus Elsässer, chief executive of Solar Promotion International. "We are pleased to bring this show to the United States, and particularly California, which is rapidly becoming a crucial region for the international development and deployment of solar technologies."
Exhibits, technical workshops, panel discussions and presentations will cover the gamut of topics within PV, solar thermal and solar architecture technologies, as well as financing, investment and political issues. An Innovation Exchange program will feature exhibitors presenting their new developments, products or services.
It is within the PV space that solar and semiconductor technologies see the most cooperation potential, and SEMICON West attendees will find several companies exhibiting their PV-related technologies at both shows, including Air Products, Amtech Systems, Edwards, Evans Analytical, Inficon, Kinetic Systems, Umicore Thin Film and VAT. Other companies are displaying at both shows, but will divide their products accordingly. Applied Materials, for example, has a smaller booth this year on the SEMICON West floor — showing its chipmaking equipment at the Metreon (Fourth Street) and its solar equipment at Intersolar. Oerlikon will likewise split its divisions between the two shows. Like SEMICON West, Intersolar exhibits are open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Thursday.
Intersolar’s conference program — which all takes place at the Intercontinental Hotel, adjacent to Moscone’s West Hall on Howard Street — is organized by a variety of distinct groups. Greentech Media and the Prometheus Institute, for example, put together an all-day session on Concentrating Solar Technologies and Markets that took place yesterday and another all-day session on Solar Finance going on Wednesday (9 a.m.-6 p.m., Intercontinental, Conference Room C). The Solar Finance conference begins with a presentation on the global solar market outlook that draws on the organizers’ annual research.
The North American Photovoltaic Advanced Manufacturing Technology Conference is a SEMI program today and tomorrow that focuses on the solutions, manufacturing equipment and technology that the industry is able to provide to wafer, cell and module makers. Today’s discussions (2-6 p.m., Intercontinental, Telegraph Hill Conference Room) will address thin-film PV technologies, with a lineup that includes a keynote address from Charlie Gay, corporate vice president and general manager of Applied Materials’ Solar Business Group. Tomorrow’s focus (9 a.m.-1 p.m., Intercontinental, Conference Room A) is on bulk silicon technology, with a keynote address from Gordon Brinser, vice president of operations at SolarWorld Industries America.
Among other conference topics, Solar Promotion International has organized a PV track that includes in-depth discussion on innovative concepts for cells and modules (both thin-film and crystalline silicon) for today. Tomorrow afternoon (4:15-6 p.m.) will feature a market technology outlook presentation titled, "Where is PV Heading?"
For more information on Intersolar North America, including the full exhibitor list and conference programs, visit www.intersolar.us.
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