DSM Royal sets up solar technologies demonstration centre

Dutch-based Royal DSM, the Euro 10 billion global life sciences and materials sciences company, today inaugurated its Solar Technologies Demonstration Center at its DSM Engineering Plastics facility in Pune, India.

This technology center has been built with an initial investment of Euro 1 million, to demonstrate and showcase the performance of DSM's innovations in solar technology and will also reduce the plant's carbon footprint by using the renewable energy generated by the solar plant.

"We aspire to be a world leader in materials based solutions for solar photovoltaic technologies. Our newly commissioned solar energy plant in Pune is the first of our demonstration facilities to showcase our technologies to customers and stakeholders around the world. The demonstration center validates the performance of KhepriCoat, DSM's anti-reflective coating technology as well as our new light trapping technology and will test and demonstrate future technologies from our stable," Oscar Goddijn, Vice President, DSM Advanced Surfaces.

The company claims that KhepriCoat, an anti-reflective coating developed by DSM Advanced Surfaces, significantly increases the efficiency of solar panels by enabling more light to enter a solar device. The center will also test a new light trapping technology which DSM is developing, which gives solar panels a performance boost utilizing smart 3D structures in a thin plastic foil.

With demand for energy increasing around the world, DSM recognizes the need to use alternative energy solutions for its own use. As an example of this approach, the DSM Engineering Plastics site in Pune now meets 50 per cent of its total electricity requirements from renewable sources.