In pursuit of new business, manufacturers such as ACC Silicones Europe are increasingly turning their attention to the opportunities presented by the PV market. Marketing Manager Chris Dawson, Commercial Director Frank Geerdsen and R&D Manager Sean Stoodley spoke to PES…
PES: Welcome to PES, can you begin by telling us a little about the company and how it serves the solar/PV sector?
ACC: ACC Silicones Europe is a silicone manufacturer with over 35 years of experience formulating and compounding using silicone technologies. We are part of an international group of silicone companies owned by the Amber Chemical Company with five manufacturing sites in Europe the USA and China. Although we share technical and manufacturing expertise we also maintain our own individual identities thus enabling us to service our local and international markets with equal levels of service and know how. This approach supports our main objective of offering customer focused and custom made solutions using our silicone chemistry which we believe has contributed greatly to our success.
As the PV sector continues to expand globally and particularly within Europe we find our customers demand a strong local level of bespoke technical support together with that all important international supply chain.
PES: How much of your total business is dedicated to the solar/PV market? Is this an area in which you foresee future growth?
ACC: Currently direct sales into the European market represent around 90 per cent of ACC Silicones business of which about 10 per cent goes into the PV market. We are confident we will see this figure continue to rise dramatically over the next few years as we increase our market share and see the fruits of the investments we have already made in this industry.
PES: And how important is the European sector to your business?
ACC: ACC Silicones Europe have identified renewable energies as one of our key strategic markets and therefore have dedicated both technical and marketing resources into developing this sector. Our presence at the PVSEC exhibition in Hamburg as an exhibitor is a demonstration of just how important we see the PV market in our future plans for growth. New emerging technical advances within this sector present significant opportunities for our silicone technologies using the experience that we have gained working alongside production and design engineers.
