Taiwan first to bring international solar tech award to Asia

Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the developer of a high efficiency PV-panel-Antenna Integration technology, was recognized as an Excellent Organization at the Solar Industry Awards (SIA), marking the first Asian country to receive the title, announced the country’s state-run Central News Agency Tuesday.

SIA, one of the most prestigious awards in solar energy, was established in 2009 by Angel Business Communication Ltd., a publisher of trade magazines in the United Kingdom.

David Ridsdale, the chief editor of the company, and a panel of experts from the PV industry selected ITRI from 2,000 entries as the organization that made the “most creative and influential product.”

First Solar, an American manufacturer of solar panels, and TS-Space Systems, an international physics-based group in the UK, won the same awards in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

ITRI’s novel planar antenna uses a panel of photovoltaic cells as a metamaterial FSS radome for dual-band operation. A 10-Watt, 72-cell unmodified commercial photovoltaic panel is applied as a transparent layer in the first operation band and as a semi-transparent layer in the second operation band to achieve high antenna gain.

The combination of photovoltaic cell and antenna with the characteristic of simple construction is suitable for outdoor wireless communication devices such as mobile phone, middle or large size access points and portable navigation devices, according to ITRI.