DSM opens new manufacturing plant for innovative anti-reflective coating

DSM has opened its newly constructed manufacturing plant for KhepriCoat anti-reflective coating at the Chemelot site in Geleen, The Netherlands. The need for additional coating supply is a direct result of the fast growing market for solar energy.

KhepriCoat is an IP protected product, developed by the DSM Innovation Center and primarily targeted at solar applications. The coating – a thin nano porous layer with a thickness of approximately 100 – 150nm – is applied on the cover glass of solar modules and strongly reduces the reflection of sunlight. The result is an increase in the energy output of these modules up to 4%. KhepriCoat is marketed through DSM Advanced Surfaces, one of the new growth platforms developed within the DSM Innovation Center.

The plant was officially opened by Rob van Leen, Chief Innovation Officer of DSM and Ulrich Frei, Managing Director of Interfloat Corporation, the first licensee of the KhepriCoat product in the European solar industry.

Rob van Leen said: "DSM is contributing extensively to the future availability of renewable energy sources, with activities on both bio-based energy as well as solar energy. The market’s accelerated adoption of our KhepriCoat coating has been the reason for increasing our manufacturing capacity on the Chemelot site.”

Solar energy is widely recognized as an important alternative and renewable source of energy. Global installed photovoltaic capacity has reached 100GW by the end of 2012 (data from European Photovoltaic Industry Association). This can roughly generate 1% of global electricity demand and compares to 100 large size nuclear power plants. Worldwide growth of the global photovoltaic market is predicted to grow 10-20% annually (EPIA).