Seldom does a completely new market erupt where adhesives and sealants can play a critical part. Adhesives and sealants are necessary components in the wind turbines, photovoltaic modules, and fuel cells that are being developed to satisfy this market need. More importantly, adhesive and sealants are required to reduce the assembly costs and achieve the high volume manufacturing goals that are essential with these new but yet unoptimized products.
Alternative sources of energy have been proposed as the ultimate solution to global energy problems. Wind turbines, solar photovoltaic modules, and fuel cells may replace today's fossil-fuel based energy sources such as coal fired power plants and internal combustion automobile engines. If this vision comes about, as many environmentalists hope, there could be a fuel cell in every auto, a solar collector on every rooftop, and wind turbines on every hill.
Conventional power generation equipment used by electric utilities and automobile engines, used by automotive manufacturers are by nature high temperature machines and, as a result, the applications for organic adhesives and sealants are limited.