Specialty Glass Needs for theU.S. Solar Industry WorkshopApril 2-3, 2008Golden, ColoradoDRAFTSummary Report and ProceedingsSponsored byU.S. Department of EnergyOffice of Energy Efficiency and Renewable EnergyIndustrial Technologies Program and Solar Energy Technologies Program1000 Independence Avenue, SWWashington, DC 20585Prepared byRoss BrindlePamela de los ReyesKeith JamisonEnergetics, IncorporatedExecutive SummaryThe solar electric power market is growing very quickly. Worldwide photovoltaics (PV) production, in particular, has had an average annual growth of 40% during the last ten years, and reached 49% in 2007. Concentrating solar power (CSP) has recently started to grow very quickly. Rapid growth is expected to continue due to a variety of causes. These include (a) improved product reliability and performance, (b) decreased costs for manufacturing as new processes and economies-of-scale become significant, (c) increased public awareness of solar powers advantages, and (d) government subsidies (including tax credits and feed-in tariffs). The Department of Energys (DOE) Solar America Initiative (SAI) has ambitious cost goals for solar power which will require high-performance low-cost glass products.Most solar power systems use glass products. The products have special requirements, including high transmissivity for PV; high reflectivity, coating delamination resistance and special geometrical shapes (bent glass) for CSP systems; and low soiling for both PV and CSP. In addition, PV glass for thin-film modules often requires one or more transparent conductive coatings to facilitate current collection. Borosilicate glass is required for some thin-film PV technologies because of its higher working temperature (compared to the more conventional, and less expensive, soda-lime glass). Glass can be formulated and fabricated to provide these functions. Whether that is done in the United States on a commercially-viable basis to meet future domestic demand for solar energy is a key question. This report summarizes discussions from the workshop “Specialty Glass Needs of the U.S. Solar Industry” held in Golden, Colorado, on April 2 & 3, 2008, to identify business and product development issues of servicing these specialty glass needs. The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energys (EERE) Industrial Technologies Program and Solar Energy Technologies Program coordinated the workshop. Going into the workshop, DOE was unclear whether this was to be a one-time event to increase awareness, facilitate business interactions, and consider the job done; or whether this was the beginning of an on-going process. The latter was the clear preference of the workshop group. The follow-on items and next steps are discussed in this report. The workshop was also planned with the valuable experience and insight of the Steering Group (members listed in Appendix A) which convened four conference calls in the months preceding the workshop to determine the content, emphases, and desired outcomes. DOE tremendously appreciates their input, which was a major factor in the success of the workshop. The workshop gathered approximately 60 technical and market experts and stakeholders from the glass and solar industries. The intent of the workshop was to understand what specific kinds of solar specialty glass are needed, and to determine what issues should be addressed, to enable wider manufacturing of these solar glass products within the United States. All of the manufacturing entities represented at the workshop have production facilities in the United States.Separate breakout sessions focused on the needs of four critical solar glass topics: coatings, concentrating solar power (CSP), photovoltaics (thin films), and photovoltaics (crystalline silicon). Breakout session participants determined key technical and market issues and then voted on a prioritization. In the figures below dealing with Technical and Market Issues and Needs, the blue dots by various items indicate the number of votes received.Similar themes were prevalent among the breakout sessions, and are enumerated here as action items or next steps in the process.1. To facilitate understanding of each others businesses, the participants were highly in favor of a future tutorial workshop that would enable the glass and solar industries to gain a better understanding of each others manufacturing environments and product needs. DOE is planning to hold a two-day “Solar-Glass Tutorial” (including a half-day Solar Tutorial) on May 28 & 29, at DOE Headquarters in Washington, D.C.2. The workshop group thought a valuable role DOE could play would be to coordinate the development of glass standards for various solar applications and suggest topics that the standards should cover, such as strength, performance testing, longevity, and mirror and coating compositions.