Martin Bellmann is a Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF. We were pleased to meet up with him at PES to discuss some of the research developments, driven by their customers. We were also keen to hear all about the Eco Solar EU project, which received massive EU investment, with excellent results.
PES: Hi Martin, welcome to PES, it’s great to talk with you. We know your organisation works in many different sectors, so could you tell us something about your work in the solar/PV industry?
Martin Bellmann: Myself, I have worked mostly in R&D, in the field of silicon feedstock, ingot and wafer manufacturing, in close collaboration with our Norwegian producers. Lately I have become more involved in the coordination of solar related actions across SINTEF.
Our aim is to provide more comprehensive solutions to our customers, for a wider range of markets. It also includes securing funding at national and international level and gettin our customers on board.
PES: We are curious to know if your research is customer driven? How does it work?
MB: That’s what SINTEF is all about. Customer-driven innovation means understanding the customers’ real needs. Developing solutions that work for the customers can only be ensured by involving them directly in the innovation process.
SINTEF is a multidisciplinary R&D institute, a kind of a toolbox. Each shelf offers different competences on demand. Projects are therefore set up using acquired competences across SINTEF from different institutes, departments and groups to suit customers’ needs.
PES: Could we talk about the Eco Solar EU project – the collaboration and the aims?
MB: The EU’s mission is to make energy production more sustainable, through exploitation of clean and renewable energy sources. Despite the greater foothold of solar energy systems, the modus operandi still relies on a ‘take-make-dispose’ logic.
Extracting resources, transforming them into products and simply discarding them at end of life is highly resource intensive and wastes valuable materials. The EU-funded project http://ecosolar.eu.com (Eco-Solar) aimed to maximise resource efficiency and integrate circular economy thinking.
‘Eco-Solar grasps the whole picture one has to look at the complete value chain – feedstock, ingot crystallisation, wafer slicing, cell production, module assembly and end-of-life. The project consortium is represented by industrial players along the entire value chain and is complemented by well-known R&D institutes.
