Project structure

The project consortium consists of IKP University of Stuttgart, Würth Solar GmbH & Co.KG, Free Energy Europe SA, Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden Württemberg, ICT Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., Ambiente Italia srl and Fundación Gaiker.

The role of the cell producers (Würth, Free Energy) is to bring in their expertise in solar technology and to deliver the solar panels for the recycling tests. In the course of the project the production processes at the partners plants will be improved and adapted to the needs of the recycling technology in close co-operation with all partners.

The ZSW is carrier of know-how in the development of solar cells and will support the solar cell producers in improving the production processes. ZSW scientists as specialists for solar cells are the link between cell producers on the one hand and the scientific partners and recyclers on the other hand. Their overview and experience in solar-cell related topics is indispensable for the project.

The recycling of the 3 solar cell types in a way, supported by the ZSW. Fraunhofer ICT and Gaiker are experienced recycling specialist with access to relevant machinery and know-how in recycling processing.

The LCA and LCE, as an important measure for sustainability will be carried out by IKP and Ambiente Italia. Beside the co-ordination tasks, IKP is responsible for the analysis of production and use of the solar modules. This includes comprehensive analysis of the whole production chain of used materials and semi-finished products. To carry out this analysis in case of the solar modules is only possible because of the extensive experience of IKP and the huge database build up in the last 10 years which will be widely used within SENSE. Ambiente Italia is experienced in LCA studies especially in the recycling sector and will be mainly responsible for the LCA of the to be developed recycling processes.