Sharp Guarantees RoHS Conformity for Thin-Film Solar Modules

The RoHS Directive (‘Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical Equipment’) limits the use of hazardous substances in all electrical appliances and electronic device. For time being, technologies for renewable energies are exempt from this EU environmental regulation. The current amendment to the directive is also retaining the exemption provision for photovoltaic products. Sharp is now voluntarily implementing the regulations in the solar industry: all products of the thin-film series meet the RoHS criteria. Sharp’s crystalline photovoltaic products shall be in compliance with the directive by the beginning of 2012.

 

Sharp has already been developing resource-saving silicon thin-film technology since 1980, which makes do without the use of environmentally harmful materials. ‘We want our commitment to the environment to set an example worldwide’, says Peter Thiele, Executive Vice President Sharp Energy Solution Europe (SESE). ‘With respect to our solar activities, that doesn’t just mean that we are making great advancements in the use of solar energy worldwide. The products themselves will also have to meet high environmental standards. If efficient thin-film modules can be produced without heavy metals, it is a matter of course for us to do so.’

To Sharp, compliance with the RoHS criteria in the thin-film series is an important step, one that sets a signal: ‘In doing so, we are proving that the efficient and cost-effective production of PV modules is also possible on an environmentally friendly basis’, Peter Thiele continues. ‘The more we do to establish solar technology and the more solar plants that are installed worldwide, the more intensively the industry will have to commit to the environmental soundness of each individual module.’

At Sharp, avoiding the use of hazardous materials is firmly integrated into the company’s global environmental strategy: Sharp has anchored environmental protection and sustainability solidly into the company's objectives on its way towards becoming an ‘environmentally advanced company’. The super-green strategy comprises the manufacture of energy-saving and energy-generating products in ecologically advanced factories, along with responsible recycling. Sharp publishes the results and objectives of its activities in the context of its environmental strategy in an annual environmental and social report (Report 2010: http://www.sharp-world.com/corporate/eco/csr_report/index.html).