Inauguration ceremony of Heliatek’s organic solar film series production with Prime Minister of Saxony Michael Kretschmer and Major of Dresden Dirk Hilbert

Dresden, 20.08.2019

Today, Michael Kretschmer, Prime Minister of Germany’s Free State Saxony, Dirk Hilbert, Mayor of Dresden officially inaugurated Heliatek’s state-of-the-art mass-production facility for its revolutionary organic solar films, in the presence of representatives from Heliatek’s shareholders, supplier-partners, economy and the press corps. The guests were given a comprehensive tour through the new production line, which ended with a symbolic commissioning of the plant that is now starting its ramp-up procedures. “With the opening of the production facility, Heliatek has successfully mastered the transformation from research into the production of highly innovative products. From Dresden, organic solar films will ensure clean and sustainable energy production around the world. This underlines the high innovation potential in the Free State and strengthens Saxony as a business location.” said Michael Kretschmer, Prime Minister of Saxony.

“With the commissioning of our new production line, we are setting a new milestone in the history of both Heliatek and the manufacturing of organic solar solutions,” says Guido van Tartwijk, CEO of Heliatek.

With the new production line, Heliatek will start producing industrial grade solar films mid-2020 and deliver them to its first strategic customers in a variety of geographies, including Germany. “We have now installed the core production machines and are currently working on the ramping them up towards high-volume roll-to-roll mass-production” says Michael Eberspächer, COO at Heliatek. Heliatek’s production line is designed for a maximum capacity of 1 million square meters of solar films.

The ceremony was followed by a round table discussion with Prime Minister Kretschmer, CEO Guido van Tartwijk and Heliatek founder Prof. Dr. Karl Leo, moderated by Dominik Gronarz, Managing Director of OES (Organic Electronics Saxony). The participants discussed challenges in of economy and climate change in Saxony.

Symbolic commissioning of Heliatek’s production line

About Heliatek

As the technology leader in organic photovoltaics, Heliatek develops, produces and distributes industrial-grade organic PV solar solutions for virtually any building surface (horizontal, vertical, curved, rigid, and flexible). Heliatek stands for energy solutions designed for various traditional and never been possible before applications based on its unique features – it is ultra-light, flexible and truly green. HeliaSol® is a ready-to-use solution, ideal for retrofitting on existing building structures. HeliaFilm® is tailor–made solar film for companies in the building and construction material industry, to integrate into their façade or roof system products. Heliatek currently employs about 150 people at the Dresden and Ulm locations in Germany.

The Free State of Saxony, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the European Union funded research and development, as well as the installation of the production technology.

Press contact at Heliatek:

Heliatek GmbH / Treidlerstr. 3 / 01139 Dresden

Stephan Kube – Head of Marketing

Tel: +49 351 213 034-421

Mail: stephan.kube@heliatek.com

Climate change is global und Heliatek want to help companies and even countries to master this challenge. Heliatek is proud to be awarded as a winner for the Japan Energy Challenge 2019. The Japan Energy Challenge is a network event that connects 20 energy venture companies from around the world with nine leading energy companies from Japan. This event helps Japanese energy companies to connect to innovative tech-companies that can help to solve the energy challenges of the fourth biggest energy consuming country in the world. The 2019 event took place in London, UK, from the 5^th to 8^th of August and Heliatek was awarded as one of four winners of the 2019 event.

Get more information at: https://japanenergychallenge.com/top-4-companies-selected-for-japan-energy-challenge-2019/

Lisbon, Portugal, 16.07.2019 – Heliatek is proud to be part of the environmentally sustainable Summer Festival Project supported by EDP (Energias de Portugal) in Portugal.

With the aim of compensating the total amount of CO₂ generated during the festival, EDP has constructed innovative trucks equipped with renewable energy solutions in order to provide energy to the equipment during the festival.

The semi-trailer structure built by EDP is equipped with HeliaSol®: Heliatek’s Organic Photo-Voltaic films on the top front part and will provide green electricity to the equipment.

Have a look at the video of the assembly of the truck parts.

The installation of organic solar films on the structure has been managed by Heliatek’s team and then assembled on site. By this way, no additional structures building and dismantling before and after the festival were necessary, always keeping in mind the economics and the environmental impact.

The semi-trailers will be travelling around all summer to different Festival in Portugal.

Guido van Tartwijk, CEO Heliatek:

„We applaud EDP’s initiative to combine the use of environmentally sustainable clean-tech solutions like our HeliaSol^® with an inspirational and uplifting Summer Festival. At Heliatek we believe that sustainability and CO₂ reduction does not equate to having no fun anymore. The use of our HeliaSol^® product is great example of the shared vision of EDP and Heliatek.”

This modest pilot application between EDP and Heliatek is marking the first step for a future collaboration on Roof application extension and others bigger projects.

Good ideas attract funding and faithful followers — and the clean-tech pioneer Heliatek has a great one. Heliatek was founded by a group of clean-energy enthusiasts 13 years ago to create a breakthrough product: organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar film. Heliatek solar film panels are a study in sustainability. Combining less than one gram of organic material with some heat, pressure and technological wizardry, Heliatek can produce 1m² of ultra-thin, lightweight, flexible solar film. Heliatek solar film can transform any surface — from glass and concrete to polymer sheets and PVC membranes — into a source of clean energy. The product is a result of years of interdisciplinary research and development by a talented team of physicists and chemists, engineers and entrepreneurs, and Heliatek set the OPV standard with a record solar efficiency of over 13 percent in laboratory conditions. The panels offer near-limitless applications, with better process control and longer lifespan than traditional crystalline technology. The company operates on a “lab-to-fab” format, transferring research insights into production practices and a marketable product. Heliatek is positioning itself as a world leader in the clean energy sector.

The technology underpinning all this has enabled it to secure several rounds of venture funding from private and public coffers — and convinced the CFI.co judging panel that Heliatek is the worthy winner of the 2019 award for Best Innovation-Led CleanTech Growth (Germany).

Lechwerke AG supply reliably a large area of southwestern Bavaria, Germany with electricity. In May 2019, a new energy source has been activated: At the grain silo of the “Schneller Mühle”, a mill in Donauwörth, approx. 230 m² of 6 m long HeliaSol® modules were installed in only four days at a height of around 20 metres.

Heliatek and innogy-associated municipal utility Lechwerke (LEW) are testing the low-carbon OPV technology for the first time on rough concrete, at such a height and covering such a large area as part of a long-term evaluation. The system is expected to generate around 6.700 kWh electricity per year.

Michael Schneller, Owner of the Schneller Mühle: “Mills were among the first generators of renewable energy. We want to continue this tradition and have therefore been considering investing in a PV system for years. With conventional PV modules, we would have had to drill holes, which might lead to serious damages on the building. With HeliaSol® this is not the case, the modules are simply glued on. For us, this is the ideal way to generate our own electricity.”

The pilot system at Schneller Mühle will be monitored and evaluated regularly. Results will be considered in Heliatek’s product development and optimization in view of the start of high-volume production in summer next year.

For more information, here the press release from LEW.

Heliatek has realized a groundbreaking “landmark” OPV installation: 120 flexible organic photovoltaic films have been installed on a wind turbine tower in the Breña Wind Farm (Albacete, Spain) to cover the consumption of the turbine’s auxiliary systems.

Read the complete story.

The E-world energy & water trade fair took place in Essen from 5 to 7 February. Heliatek was there and presented its flexible solar films at the booth of Engie Deutschland in hall 1, booth 304. Many thanks to Engie Deutschland for the chance to present!