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13 HERAEUS | MAGAZINE 2015 | INNOVATING SILVER PASTES THREE QUESTIONS for Andreas Liebheit, President Heraeus Photovoltaics so Dr. Zhang’s focus is also on this market. He spends around 150 days in Asian countries every year, with an emphasis on meeting with customers. He often starts preparing for and fine-tuning presentations from the moment he gets on the plane, and goes straight from the airport to meetings with customers upon arrival. Dr. Zhang’s keen interest in his work and his strong sense of responsibility mean that he is never bored doing his job. Of course, he also often looks forward to spending time with his wife and two children, who live in the U.S. Painting the bigger picture How can Heraeus best support its customers in the future and also build on its market leadership? Dr. Zhang has long been pondering this question. The photovoltaic industry has come to a turning point, with mainstream technologies being gradually replaced by new technolo- gies over the last decades. In Zhang’s estimation, this is a huge opportunity. “Only by transforming our role can we continue to shape the market and lead the industry. Because we want to continue to reinforce our position as a leader in the PV sector for the next five to ten years and beyond.” Dr. Zhang predicts that PV costs will continue to fall, while efficiency and performance keep improving. “If we look at the bigger picture, energy storage will continue to be a hot topic in the upcoming decade, with many chang- es and new opportunities. For instance, as yet there is no economical and effective energy storage solution that can help take the PV industry to the next stage of explosive growth. Combining PV and energy storage will create a previously untapped opportunity for Heraeus to grow our business significantly.” Weiming Zhang and his motivated R&D and sales teams will make a decisive contribution to creating this bigger picture. O What is the future role of renewable energies? Global demand for energy is on the rise – and expected to grow more than 40% by 2030. The global Paris Climate Conference in 2015 showed that renewable energies play a key role if the energy demands of the world’s population are to be met in a sustainable and eco-friendly way. Limiting global warming to 1.5-2 degrees is impossible without the nearly complete decarbonization of energy generation, that is, conversion to technologies that do not emit CO2. How is Heraeus currently active in the renewable energy sector? Heraeus has broad expertise and a number of inno- vative products for generating, converting, storing and distributing renewable energies. These include metallization pastes for the circuit paths on solar cells; sputtering targets for thin-film solar modules; conductive polymers for organic solar cells; light and heat solutions, as well as quartz glass products, for the production of solar cells; Porocarb® for lithium ion batteries; electrodes for fuel cells; catalysts for the electrolytic production of hydrogen; and power electronics for wind turbines. How much more can the effectiveness of solar cells still be improved? Improving efficiency is the key driver in the photovol- taics market. At present, standard solar cells convert approximately 18% of sunlight into electrical energy. The current world record for prototypes is 22%, achieved with solar pastes from Heraeus. In five to ten years, we could have solar cells with a standard efficiency of 23 to 25%. We are working on a multi- layer design, the Heraeus tandem solar cell, where we stack various material systems in a solar cell that can gather various colors or wavelengths of the sunlight, thereby generating even more energy.

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