Aug 24 2009
The future continues to look bright for solar energy, and DuPont is making investments that reflect global trends driving the company's science - one of which is decreasing dependence on fossil fuels.
DuPont is a leading supplier of materials and technology to the photovoltaic industry and expects that overall sales of its family of products into the industry will exceed $1 billion by 2012.
DuPont now is providing additional details of a multi-phase production expansion for its DuPont Tedlar polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) product line. This phase represents more than $120 million in investment which increases by more than 50% the capacity of monomer and resin used in producing Tedlar films.
Tedlar PVF films have been an essential component of photovoltaic back sheets for more than 25 years, and are widely recognized as the industry standard due to its excellent strength, weather resistance, ultraviolet resistance and moisture barrier properties.
"This investment supports the significant increase in the global market demand for clean, renewable energy," said Dave Miller, group vice president - DuPont Electronic & Communication Technologies. "Our capacity expansions are critical steps in growing the Tedlar business and maintaining our market leadership in back sheets for solar panels that deliver the long-term, reliable power supply that our customers have come to expect from their investment in renewable power generation."
DuPont anticipates that the photovoltaic market will grow rapidly over the next several years, and this growth will drive the demand for Tedlar and other materials that increase the lifetime and efficiency of solar cells and modules. DuPont expects overall sales of its family of products into the photovoltaic industry will exceed $1 billion by 2012.