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PES: Welcome to PES Solar/PV magazine, it’s great to talk with you. Could you begin by explaining a little about the background of ISOVOLTAIC SOLINEX and the importance of the solar/PV industry to you?

Thomas Rossegger & Matthias Meinl: At SOLINEX, we have accumulated more than 30 years in the backsheet business within the global PV industry. Being a carve-out of long-standing ISOVOLTAIC AG, our team has extensive experience and an excellent network on the market. As such, we combine the benefits of a new and innovative company, offering a highly reputable

product, to the global PV industry with an outstanding, qualified and experienced team.

At SOLINEX, we are continuing the innovative spirit that our original company ISOVOLTAIC, has always been known for and du to this we are leaders in the global backsheet market. Our dedicated mission is to cater to the global PV industry, with a product portfolio that offers our clients a highly attractive combination of competitive advantages, in terms of product performance, cost of ownership and ecological considerations.

PES: Is this still a growing market for you?

TR & MM: In the long run, we believe that the global PV industry will continue to grow significantly as renewable energy production becomes more and more important to the world. As such, we continue to be committed to the industry: a trusted business partner, known for innovation and quality. This being said, it is evident that the immaturity of the industry still features high amplitude volatility and massive transformation.

The recent move of the Chinese government to reduce domestic installation is just the latest in a sequence of events that have rattled the market in the past

PES caught up with the joint managing directors of ISOVOLTAIC SOLINEX, Diplom-Ingenieur Thomas Rossegger and Magister Matthias Meinl. They lead a very experienced team in backsheet technology and have customers all over the globe. Their latest offering is polypropylene-based and out performs similar products on the market. R&D and innovation remains a constant quest.

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New technology in backsheets

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years and we believe that it will not be the last. We consider these a natural evolution process that will certainly challenge all market participants alike.

Nonetheless, with the right setup, product portfolio and a continuously innovative mindset, we are convinced that we are in a position to continue supporting the further development of the global PV market to a mature and self-sustaining industry.

PES: We have been hearing about your ICOSOLAR® CPO 3G backsheet, can you explain what it is and its benefit to the customer and end user?

TR & MM: ICOSOLAR® CPO 3G is the most recent result of our continuous quest for innovation. With ICOSOLAR® CPO 3G, SOLINEX was the first company globally to introduce a full polypropylene-based backsheet to the market. It was designed as a mono-layer and co-extruded in a

single production step so as to combine the benefits of area-specific functionality in the backsheet, with full protection against delamination. In terms of technical functionality, the product range outperforms conventional backsheet compositions in a multitude of aspects such as reflectivity, damp heat performance, UV resistance, acetic acid permeability and mechanical features.

In addition, the performance of ICOSOLAR® CPO 3G economically benefits both module producers through its simple processing and investors through equipping modules with an extended lifetime at increased output.

Thus, ICOSOLAR® CPO 3G combines both technical and economic advantages against conventional backsheet compositions. Eventually, its polypropylene basis allows for full recyclability, thus adding to the technical and economic benefits and contributing to the PV industry’s ambition to deliver truly clean energy.

PES: Please could you explain what hydrolytic stability is and how it affects PV module backsheets?

TR & MM: Hydrolysis is the cleavage of chemical bonds in polymers by reaction with water. This reaction occurs mainly in polymers that take up a lot of moisture and that have water-sensitive groups in the polymer backbone. PV-modules in the field and consequently, PV-module-backsheets are in constant contact with humidity. This is why backsheets need to be highly resistant to hydrolysis in order to avoid polymer degradation.

PES: We are curious to know how things have changed since the Vienna-based investment company RING INTERNATIONAL HOLDING AG (RIH)

acquired a stake in SOLINEX.

TR & MM: RIH acquired a minority stake in SOLINEX at the end of March 2018. The company, headquartered in Vienna, has a long-standing track record in industrial investments with a very long-term perspective. For RIH, SOLINEX is the cornerstone, to what is to become, a larger portfolio of investments in the renewable energy sector. With RIH, we are happy to have entered into a partnership in which SOLINEX does not only benefit from financial support to master the occasional ups and downs of this young and dynamic industry but also receives considerable strategic and operational support.

PES: Do you have any new other new products or solutions in the pipeline – if so would like to hear about them?

TR & MM: As polypropylene-based backsheets are comparably new to the industry, we are currently putting our focus on educating the market on the benefits of this new and innovative technology. As such, continuing the so far successful growth path of ICOSOLAR® CPO 3G is core to us in the short run. Nonetheless, the key takeaway of our 30+ years of industry experience is that continuous innovation is the ultimate decisive factor for sustainable success in the PV industry. To this end, our R&D department is constantly undertaking to develop the next level of product in a balanced set of technical, economic and ecologic benefits. Currently, we are looking at expanding our product portfolio so as to adapt to the variety of processing setups, with module producers globally, as well as general research efforts towards a full polyolefin-based cell encapsulation.

PES: We know you believe in healthy and sustainable development, please expand on this?

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Matthias MeinlThomas Rossegger

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ASK THE EXPERTS

TR & MM: Obviously, healthy and sustainable development is a fairly broad term that allows for broad interpretation. At SOLINEX, we apply this approach to both our products and corporate strategy.

With regard to product sustainability, we believe that technical performance leadership, cost competitiveness and ecological considerations together, are what constitutes sustainability in the long run.

While technical performance and cost competitiveness are on everybody’s agenda already, we believe that in particular the ecologic component will become ever more important. As we are approaching a stage where the pioneer solar parks will have to be renewed, the recycling process of old modules will move into the focus. There, ICOSOLAR® CPO 3G benefits from its PO-based composition as it is – as opposed to PVF or PVDF base materials – thermically recyclable.

To this end, all our development efforts are geared to achieving a market-leading combination of all of the above features. Our ICOSOLAR® CPO 3G is certainly one of the best in class in this respect. Nonetheless, we expect and hope for the entire industry that further developments will continue to push the boundaries beyond the current level, a challenge that we are happy to accept and feel well equipped to master.

Secondly, from a corporate strategy perspective, nobody would contest that the global industry is far from stable at this very moment. Regional shifts, consolidation waves and regular governmental regulatory measures continue to keep the industry highly alert and at unease.

At SOLINEX, we are committed to contributing our share to accelerating the industry’s path to stability through regionally-specific product and service offerings such as warehousing, delivery

flexibility, tailor-made solutions according to market requirements and – first and foremost – consistent and reliable service and quality.

We believe that cooperation along the vertical value chain is inevitable for the industry to eventually stabilize and as such are seeking long-term partnerships with our customers.

PES: What makes ISOVOLTAIC SOLINEX stand out from the competition and why should customers choose you?

TR & MM: Our service offering always combines state-of-the-art products that benefit our customers in all technical, economic and ecologic aspects with a highly experienced, qualified and service-oriented team. We continuously encourage our customers to accompany us on our innovation path, so as to ensure for our customers that we will always be at the leading end of the market.

Our history of more than 30 years clearly speaks to us being a reliable, long-term partner able to master the industry’s swings. With SOLINEX, module makers and stakeholders further in the value chain have the security of a long-standing and loyal partner that caters to both their short-term and long-term needs.

PES: Where do you operate and where are the key markets for ISOVOLTAIC SOLINEX and are there any areas, geographically speaking, that you would like to break in to?

TR & MM: Our headquarters is based in the southern part of Austria, centrally located within Europe and in close reach of a number of oversea ports. From our state-of-the-art production unit in Lebring, Austria, we cater to module makers across the entire globe.

We have a long track record of business in China, yet ICOSOLAR® CPO 3G is primarily offered to the growing markets

outside of China, for example India or Turkey. Nevertheless, China continues to be an important target market for SOLINEX, which we are tackling by offering a dedicated product. Core to our regional strategies is always local presence and market-specific service proposals, however centrally coordinated by our globally experienced team in Austria.

PES: What is the single biggest challenge facing the market today?

TR & MM: The single largest challenge that all markets players are exposed to equally is certainly still the market’s immaturity. Players across the entire value chain are still hunting markets based on temporary regulatory government actions rather than by sustainable economic imperative.

The comparably large number of fragmented players, beyond the globally leading module producers, often does not find itself in a position to adjust to the artificially created dynamic of the market, which eventually poses the risk of concentrated, undesired module production globally, with an oligopoly of large module makers.

At SOLINEX, however, we are convinced that in order to stabilise the global PV industry and to ensure a healthy and sustainable development, a solid, global, module maker landscape is required. To this end, we have established a corporate setup allowing us to strategically support our customers world-wide from small to large scale, thus contributing to further detach the global PV sector from temporary regulatory measures.

PES: Looking ahead into 2018 and beyond, what trends and/or changes are you anticipating in the solar monitoring market and why?

TR & MM: We believe that the rest of 2018 and 2019 will – triggered by the most recent move of the Chinese government – be characterised by severe competition among module producers as a result of global overcapacity. This puts considerable pressure on the industry to further improve the module efficiency in order to render installation investment cases more profitable.

We consider this a generally healthy development – though not triggered by market forces but regulatory action – and expect that the market’s quest for further efficiency will require all component suppliers to contribute their share.

Price dumping may do the job in the short run; however, this would not contribute to a sustainable improvement of the industry. As such, we consider that innovation and R&D capability will become even more key to success in the near future in order to meet the market’s demands. At SOLINEX, we are well prepared to master the challenges ahead and are looking forward to helping our clients cater to the market with even better solutions.

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