One of the important promises of FME SUSOLTECH even before it formally started was to establish a new arena for knowledge sharing and interaction between research and industry partners, the so-called Solar Industry Forum.

These meetings provide opportunities for networking, for drawing upon diverse experiences and lessons and provide important input to research activities. An important motivation behind the establishment of the Solar Industry Forum was the desire to establish an arena for generating new spin-off activities, in particular innovation projects and other R&D projects with industry lead and/or participation. The Forum should facilitate a collective reflection and discussion to further strengthen solar cell related activities in Norway, both in research and industry.

The program for the second meeting was dominated by the industry partners in the field of PV systems in Norway, and companies both from FME SUSOLTECH and outside participated. Otovo, FUSen, Solenergiforeningen and Omsorgsbygg all gave exciting presentations at the meeting, in addition to center researchers. It was a very positive meeting for FME SUSOLTECH. Firstly, the input from the industry presentations clearly aligned with the proposed research direction in this field within FME SUSOLTECH, particularly within our Work Package 4: End use and Impact. This bodes well for the coming years of research. Secondly, the meeting clearly showed that this is a fairly new addition to the Norwegian solar cell industry which is rapidly picking up speed. The meeting gave good directions for the planning of future research and was well attended by both industry and research partners