Chances of Success for Organic PV in the Dominancy of Crystalline Silicon (Printed Electronics Europe 2013)

After a high price period related to silicon shortage (2005-2008) the solar PV market entered a maturing period characterized by manufacturing overcapacity and drastic drop of module prices (2010- 20??) pushing many companies in negative margins and for some of them to bankruptcy.

If crystalline silicon is today largely dominating the 'traditional' market - giving inorganic thin film a hard life - organic photovoltaics may build a significant advantage on less traditional markets due to their extraordinary attributes and outstanding recent progresses, allowing them to avoid a frontal - and possibly lethal competition with existing technologies.

Marc VERMEERSCH is currently (02/2012 - today) the Senior Advisor in Solar Technologies and Strategy for TOTAL. His current mission is to advise TOTAL and SunPower in solar, and to contribute to the development and improvement of SunPower's profitability.

He has been (2006-2012) the founder and the group leader of the research and development in solar and new energies for TOTAL. In close partnership with international excellence centers this activity laid the foundations of the future technological field for the Company in the three main photovoltaic technologies. The major achievement of this very intense period of commitment for new energies in TOTAL is the investment the Group made in SunPower.

His background is solid state physics and materials science; it is completed with a postgraduate qualification in management and business administration.

He has been working for more than ten years for the French Group Saint-Gobain, first in the research and development in plasma physics applied to advanced thin films deposition processes and products for building and automotive applications, and later in the industrial scale-up and transfer processes from the lab to the production. Before joining the Total Group, he has dedicated three years of his career to the major issues of building energy management and building envelope performance.

Total is one of the largest integrated oil and gas companies in the world, with activities in more than 130 countries. The Group is also a first rank player in chemicals. Its 97,000 employees put their expertise to work in every part of the industry - exploration and production of oil and natural gas, refining and marketing, new energies, trading, and chemicals. Total is working to help satisfy the global demand for energy, both today and tomorrow.

Total is striving to diversify its supply to help meet growing energy demand in the long term. The Group holds a 66% stake in SunPower, a world leader in solar energy. Additionally, Total is actively engaged in a number of renewable research and development projects, such as solar and biomass.