DuPont's Chinese division, DuPont China Holding Co., and China's GD Solar on Wednesday signed a strategic collaborative agreement focused on improving the power output, quality and reliability of solar energy systems.
The companies, which announced the deal during the Renewable Energy Industries Forum in Shanghai, said they would collaborate on the research and development of materials applied to GD Solar panels and systems.
DuPont will supply key photovoltaic materials and work with GD Solar to optimize their performance and application for high-efficiency solar cells and panels, integrated frames, new protective backsheet constructions and other system components. The companies will also conduct field research on panel reliability and failure modes to learn more about materials critical impact on the daily operation of solar systems.
"By improving the power output, quality and reliability of solar panels through such studies, lower overall system costs can be achieved, spurring broader and faster adoption of solar energy," the companies said in a statement.
Walt Cheng, managing director of DuPont Electronics & Communications for Greater China, said, "DuPont and GD Solar share a common goal and commitment to help the solar energy industry provide a long-term, sustainable and positive energy source to meet the needs of the growing global population. Through our work with GD Solar, we can further assess the impact of materials on systems and continue to improve their performance."
GD Solar general manager Xu Zhong added, "We are very pleased to enter this strategic cooperation with world-class materials supplier, DuPont. I believe that DuPont can bring new technology innovation and creative ideas to our company because it has more than 30 years of extensive experience and involvement in the solar industry."
DuPont was a sponsor at Wednesdays Renewable Energy Industries Forum, which is organized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in partnership with the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and China's National Energy Administration (NEA).
In June, DuPont and China's Yingli Energy signed a new one year, $100 million strategic agreement that includes the supply of advanced solar materials, the installation of a solar power plant and co-marketing of solar initiatives. The agreement followed a similar agreement signed last year.
Last month DuPont reported that second-quarter revenue at its Electronics & Communications division dropped 18% to $653 million while operating profit slipped 4% to $95 million due to lower sales volume in photovoltaic markets.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.