Gregoire's CleanTech Blog

Silicon Nanocrystals for Superefficient Solar Cells

A typical solar cell generates only one electron per photon of incoming sunlight. Some exotic materials are thought to produce multiple electrons per photon, but for the first time, the same effect has been seen in silicon. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in Golden, CO, showed that silicon nanocrystals can produce two or three electrons per photon of high-energy sunlight. The effect, they say, could lead to a new type of solar cell that is both cheap and more than twice as efficient as today's typical photovoltaics.

As in earlier work with other materials, the extra electrons come from photons of blue and ultraviolet light, which have much more energy than those from the rest of the solar spectrum, especially red and infrared light. In most solar cells, the extra energy in blue and ultraviolet light is wasted as heat. But the small size of nanoscale crystals, also called quantum dots, leads to novel quantum-mechanical effects that convert this energy into electrons instead.

By generating multiple electrons from high-energy photons, solar cells made of silicon nanocrystals could theoretically convert more than 40 percent of the energy in light into electrical power, says Arthur Nozik, a senior research fellow at NREL. In contrast, today's flat rooftop solar panels are at best just over 20 percent efficient and are theoretically limited to about 30 percent efficiency. Concentrating sunlight with mirrors or lenses could raise that figure to about 40 percent, but the same approach could boost the efficiency of a silicon-nanocrystal solar cell to well over 60 percent, Nozik says.

What's more, solar cells made of silicon nanocrystals could prove to be cheap, giving them a significant advantage over other approaches to high-efficiency solar cells. For example, advanced "multijunction" cells have shown efficiencies of more than 40 percent. But these require complicated manufacturing processes that combine expensive semiconductors optimized for different parts of the solar spectrum. Silicon nanocrystals, in contrast, are relatively easy to make, even compared with the material in conventional solar cells, the best of which are made of very large, single crystals of silicon.

Silicon nanocrystals also have marked advantages over the other nanocrystal materials that have shown the multielectron effect. Some of these materials contain toxic elements such as lead or cadmium, and others rely on elements such as indium that are in limited supply. But silicon is both safe and abundant. It's also well studied, says Christiana Honsberg, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Delaware, so engineers know how to work with it to make solar cells. Indeed, for many of the same reasons, silicon is by far the most common material in solar cells today, and it's attractive as the basis for broader deployment of photovoltaics in the future.

Before the NREL work, researchers had believed that silicon crystals small enough to produce the multielectron effect would be impractical as a photovoltaic material. At the nanoscale, the optical properties of silicon change so that it converts less light from the red end of the spectrum into electrons. As a result, any gains from more efficiently converting blue and ultraviolet light would be offset. Nozik and his colleagues found that the nanocrystals did not have to be as small as was previously thought, skirting this problem.

To be sure, the NREL work is only a first step. Making solar cells that take advantage of multielectron generation is a challenge. That's because the extra electrons are very short-lived, making it difficult to extract them from the nanocrystals to generate an electrical current. Indeed, this has proved so difficult that evidence of the effect has come from indirect methods such as spectroscopy rather than from current generated by a solar cell. The use of the indirect measures has led some prominent experts to question whether the extra electrons are actually being produced, although Nozik says that the effect has been confirmed using multiple techniques. Nozik and his colleagues are now working to make solar cells out of silicon nanocrystals--they're exploring a number of novel designs--and he says they've recently made direct measurements indicating that their cells are releasing multiple electrons per photon absorbed. (Their results have yet to be published.)

Honsberg is cautiously optimistic, calling the finding of the multiple-electron effect in silicon nanocrystals a breakthrough, but only "one breakthrough out of maybe three or four" needed to produce cheap, superefficient solar cells.

Green Energy Technology of Taiwan Awards Contract to Applied Materials for Thin Film Solar Production Line

TAIPEI, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Green Energy Technology Inc., Ltd. (GET), Taiwan’s largest producer of solar wafers, today announced its plan to become the first company in Taiwan to manufacture thin film solar modules using ultra-large 5.7m2 glass panels. GET has awarded Applied Materials, Inc. a contract to deliver a thin film solar module production line to its planned solar fab in TaoYuan, Taiwan.

Mr. Hurlon Lin, president of GET, stated, “From our position in supplying wafers for crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturing, we are seeing a tightened supply of silicon material driven by heavy demand from the solar and semiconductor industries. Using thin film technology for solar cells capitalizes on the greater availability of these glass substrates and the expanding worldwide need for cost-effective photovoltaic panels.

“There are significant economic advantages to large-area thin film solar technology and, based on Applied Materials’ proven expertise in large-area flat panel manufacturing, we trust Applied to provide the technology and experience that can help make our new venture a success,” added Mr. Lin.

Applied will deliver a fully integrated line of equipment for a solar panel manufacturing facility with a nominal rated capacity of 40 megawatts per year. The systems are scheduled to be shipped and installed during the first half of 2008 with production expected later that year. GET plans to target rapidly-growing applications for these more cost-effective, large-area modules, such as power plant and building-integrated photovoltaic (PV) installations.

“We are pleased to work with GET and its parent, Tatung Company, which has a long history and excellent reputation for quality products,” said Dr. Mark Pinto, senior vice president and general manager of Applied’s New Business and New Products Group. “Based on Applied’s extensive experience in providing multiple generations of systems for making continuously larger substrates in the flat panel display industry, we expect these ultra-large panels to provide similar cost benefits to the solar industry.”

Green Energy Technology Inc., Ltd. (GET) was invested by San-Chih Semiconductor through an equity investment by Tatung and incorporated in July, 2004. GET’s main products are multi-crystal silicon wafers (125x125mm or 156x156mm) in thicknesses ranging from 325-200µm, and single-crystal ingots and wafers. GET’s web site is www.getinc.com.tw.

Tatung Company, founded in 1918, is a diversified conglomerate of four business groups: 3C; home appliances; industrial appliances; and wire and cable. Tatung follows a strategy of vertical integration of an industry to provide competitive advantages in supply chain efficiency and profitability. Headquartered in Taipei, Tatung has branches in Europe, North America, Mainland China and Southwest Asia. Tatung’s web site is www.tatung.com.

Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) is the global leader in Nanomanufacturing Technology™ solutions with a broad portfolio of innovative equipment, service and software products for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panels, solar photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics and energy efficient glass. At Applied Materials, we apply Nanomanufacturing Technology to improve the way people live. Learn more at www.appliedmaterials.com.

Applied Materials to Extend Its Reach in Solar With Acquisition of HCT Shaping Systems

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Applied Materials, Inc. today announced that it has agreed to acquire HCT Shaping Systems SA (HCT), a privately-held company based in Switzerland. HCT is the world’s leading supplier of precision wafering systems used principally in manufacturing crystalline silicon (c-Si) substrates for the solar industry. Under terms of the agreement, Applied will pay approximately CHF 583 million (or approximately US$475 million at the current exchange rate) in cash for all of the outstanding shares of HCT. The acquisition is part of Applied’s strategy to accelerate customers' ability to reduce the costs of photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturing to make solar energy more competitive with grid electricity.

“This acquisition aligns well with our overall strategy to drive down the cost-per-watt of solar power for c-Si and thin film applications,” said Mike Splinter, president and CEO of Applied Materials. “HCT will significantly expand our opportunities in the c-Si PV technology sector, which currently comprises 90% of solar panel production. By combining HCT’s precision wafering systems with Applied’s strong manufacturing technology and global support infrastructure, we believe we can take solar wafer manufacturing to the next level of production efficiency.”

HCT is a pioneer in precision wafering, with technology that also includes products for squaring and cropping ingots and for slurry recovery. After a silicon ingot is formed, HCT’s wafering systems exactly section it into thin substrates for subsequent use in fabricating c-Si solar cells. As a result of the substantial expansion of the solar industry, HCT has recently experienced rapid growth, supplying its products to c-Si solar manufacturers worldwide.

Currently, one of the major challenges in manufacturing solar cells is the cost and supply of the raw silicon material. In c-Si manufacturing, HCT’s precision wafering systems enable customers to significantly reduce the thickness of wafers used to make c-Si solar cells, decreasing silicon usage. In addition, Applied’s products for thin film solar cell manufacturing reduce silicon utilization by forming atomically thin layers of silicon directly from gases onto a glass substrate.

“Our overall solar strategy is to reduce cost-per-watt, and for c-Si, the ‘grams of silicon-per-watt’ is key to this equation,” commented Dr. Mark Pinto, senior vice president and general manager of Applied’s New Business and New Products Group. “HCT’s technology and roadmap to reduce wafer thickness are critical to improving material utilization and will complement our high throughput c-Si ATON deposition system, enabling customers to scale up production and reduce cost.”

Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of certain non-U.S. regulatory approvals. The parties expect to close the transaction during Applied’s fourth fiscal quarter of 2007.

Applied Materials will discuss this announcement on a conference call today beginning at 2:30pm Pacific Daylight Time. A live webcast of the conference call will be available on Applied’s web site at www.appliedmaterials.com and a replay will be available after 5:00pm Pacific Daylight Time.

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to Applied’s anticipated acquisition of HCT and expected benefits of the transaction, and Applied’s solar strategy, growth opportunities and product capabilities. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied, including but not limited to: the satisfaction of closing conditions; the successful integration and performance of the acquired business; the sustainability of demand in the nanomanufacturing technology industry and broadening of demand for emerging applications such as solar, which are subject to many factors, including global economic conditions, business and consumer spending, demand for electronic products, the cost-effectiveness and performance of PV products compared to other energy sources, technological innovations, evolving industry standards, economic incentives for alternative energy, production facility utilization rates, supply of raw materials, and geopolitical uncertainties; Applied’s ability to (i) develop, deliver and support a broad range of products and expand its markets and develop new markets, (ii) accurately predict the characteristics of, and capitalize on, opportunities in the solar market, (iii) obtain and protect intellectual property rights in key technologies, (iv) realize synergies expected to result from the transaction, and (v) hire and retain key employees; and other risks described in Applied’s SEC filings. All forward-looking statements are based on management’s estimates, projections and assumptions as of June 26, 2007, and Applied undertakes no obligation to update any such statements.

Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) is the global leader in Nanomanufacturing Technology™ solutions with a broad portfolio of innovative equipment, service and software products for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panels, solar photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics and energy efficient glass. At Applied Materials, we apply Nanomanufacturing Technology to improve the way people live. Learn more at www.appliedmaterials.com.

Ersol Plans to Sell New Shares to Fund Silicon Supply Agreement

Ersol Solar Energy AG, a German solar cell maker, plans to issue new shares to help it make advance payments for long-term silicon contracts.

Ersol intends to issue as many as 923,524 new shares, the Erfurt-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. The stock will be offered to existing shareholders from July 2 to July 17 and the final subscription price will be set July 12, the company said.

Ersol signed an agreement with Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. to buy silicon from 2010 to 2020, the company said in a separate statement. Ersol will make a down payment of at least 10 million euros ($13 million) for the silicon.

Source : Bloomberg

SpectroLab develops ultra-efficient solar cells using new class of materials

A solar cell more than twice as efficient as typical rooftop solar panels has been developed by Spectrolab, a Boeing subsidiary based in Sylmar, CA. It makes use of a highly customizable and virtually unexplored class of materials that could lead to further jumps in efficiency over the next decade, making solar power less expensive than grid electricity in much of the country.

The cell, which employs new "metamorphic" materials, is designed for photovoltaic systems that use lenses and mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays onto small, high-efficiency solar cells, thereby requiring far less semiconductor material than conventional solar panels. Last month Spectrolab published in the journal Applied Physics Letters the first details on its record-setting cell, initially disclosed in December, which converts 40.7 percent of incoming light into electricity at 240-fold solar concentration--a healthy 1.4 percent increase over the company's previous world-record cell. Other groups are developing promising cells based on the new type of materials, including researchers at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in Golden, CO. The NREL researchers will soon publish results in the same journal showing that their NREL's designs are tracking Spectrolab's, improving from 37.9 percent efficiency in early 2005 to 38.9 percent efficiency today.

Metamorphic semiconductors resemble the high-efficiency cells used in space. Like the cells that grace satellites and planetary landers, they employ three layers of semiconductors, each tuned to capture a slice of the solar spectrum (solar panels have only one active layer). These semiconductor layers are assembled, one upon the next, by altering elements fed to a crystal growing in a vacuum. To avoid growing crystals filled with energy-trapping defects, device designers have until recently employed only a limited repertoire of semiconductors, such as germanium and gallium arsenide, which form similar crystal structures.

Metamorphic materials provide flexibility by throwing off this structural constraint, employing a wide range of materials, including those with mismatched structures. "The parameter space you can explore using mismatch opens up a whole world of possibilities," says NREL principal scientist Sarah Kurtz.

What makes this possible is the addition of buffer layers between the semiconductor layers. This technique was employed in the early 1990s to make high-speed transistors combining silicon and germanium, and then introduced to photovoltaics later in the decade by Cleveland-based semiconductor developer Essential Research. Spectrolab has, however, seen the best results. Its 40.7 percent metamorphic cell improves on Spectrolab's best conventional cells by incorporating new semiconductors in the top and middle layers that excel at capturing infrared light that was all but missed by the cell's predecessors.

Such high output may be just the beginning. Raed Sherif, director of concentrator products at Spectrolab, says there is every reason to believe that these metamorphic solar cells will top 45 percent and perhaps even 50 percent efficiency. Sherif says those efficiencies, combined with the vast reduction in materials made possible by 1,000-fold concentrators, could rapidly reduce the cost of producing solar power. "Concentrated photovoltaics are a relatively late entry in the field, but it will catch up very quickly in terms of cost," he predicts. (See "Solar Power at Half the Cost.")

Sherif says that right now his company is focusing commercialization efforts on the older and better-known designs, which currently deliver 35 to 37 percent efficient modules and could improve to 40 percent efficiency within two to three years. But he says the metamorphic approach is more likely to achieve the 45 percent efficiency level the company hopes to hit within six to seven years. Sherif estimates that a 40 percent module would reduce overall cost by about 14 percent if Spectrolab holds at its current $10-per-square-centimeter module price, while a 45 percent cell would trim system costs by an additional 9 to 10 percent.

Boeing anticipates further cost reductions as other components improve or are mass-produced. Under a $29.8 million concentrated-photovoltaic development partnership with the Department of Energy announced this spring, Boeing promises to cut the delivered price of electricity via concentrated solar to 15 cents per kilowatt hour by 2010, from an estimated 32 cents per kilowatt hour today, and to cut that price in half again by 2015. That would make solar power less expensive than electricity from the grid in much of the United States, where the average price of electricity in recent months has been about 10 cents per kilowatt hour.

Spectrolab's competitors, meanwhile, see metamorphic materials as a way to reduce the use of relatively exotic and expensive semiconductor wafers on which they are now produced. NREL's design, for example, can be lifted off of the germanium wafers on which both NREL's and Spectrolab's cells are grown. The expensive wafers could then be reused. Metamorphic photovoltaic startup 4Power, of Windham, NH, proposes to employ metamorphic buffers to grow high-efficiency cells on the same wafers of silicon on which nearly all semiconductor chips are produced. Silicon wafers are cheaper to buy and process than germanium wafers. 4Power founder Eugene Fitzgerald, a materials engineering professor at MIT and a metamorphic-materials pioneer, claims that this would cut the cost of growing high-efficiency cells in half.

What remains to be demonstrated, notes NREL's Kurtz, who leads the lab's high-efficiency solar research, is whether solar concentrators--especially their sensitive optics--will prove reliable in the field.

La recherche italienne investit sur les matériaux

L'Italie, malgré le retard accumulé par rapport à l'Allemagne et au Japon, progresse fortement dans le secteur des bâtiments à faible consommation d'énergie. Les avancées se concentrent principalement sur deux produits : les panneaux photovoltaïques et les installations visant l'autosubsistance en énergie électrique, en eau chaude et en régulation de la température.

Parmi les exemples d'innovations italiennes, on peut citer le projet 'Casa 2 litri' à Ozzano dell'Emilia, une maison couvrant tous les besoins en énergie et en climatisation avec seulement 2 litres de gasoil par an et par mètre carré, soit un dixième de la consommation moyenne habituelle. L'Italie est également à l'avant-garde des systèmes intégrés hybrides de panneaux photovoltaïques et solaires, comme dans le projet 'Tis' de Secco Sistemi à Bologne.

Solarday, une entreprise de la province de Milan, intègre quant à elle des modules photovoltaïques directement dans les parois, et a déjà réalisé un prototype de plaque d'1 mètre sur 3,6 contenant 56 cellules. Des panneaux photovoltaïques transparents, pouvant faire office de vitre ou être posés sur les murs, ont aussi été annoncés à Naples lors de EnergyMed, une exposition sur l'énergie renouvelable et l'efficacité énergétique dans le pourtour méditerranéen. Ces panneaux comportent une fine pellicule à base de tellurure de cadmium, qui coûte cinq fois moins cher que le silicium tout en absorbant 50% d'énergie solaire en plus. Le brevet de cette invention appartient à l'université de Parme et la production industrielle est assurée par l'entreprise Marcegaglia Energy, la commercialisation étant prévue pour fin 2008.

Des cellules solaires imprimées sur film plastique à tapisser comme du papier peint

Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. a développé une cellule solaire organique de type Graetzel avec une efficacité de conversion de 7,1%, réalisée sur film plastique par impression. Les cellules solaires réalisées sur films souples ont généralement une faible efficacité car ce support ne permet pas de traitements à haute température, ce qui limite les possibilités d'élaboration. Une étape sous vide est de plus requise pour former l'électrolyte, ce qui limite la productivité.

Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. a développé une technique dans laquelle la couche active est déposée sur un substrat métallique (ce qui permet de s'affranchir des contraintes de la haute température) puis transférée sur le film plastique. L'étape sous vide a par ailleurs été supprimée en utilisant un électrolyte sous forme de gel, déposé par un procédé d'impression propre à l'entreprise. La couche active utilise du dioxyde de titane TiO2.

Le prototype mesure 30x30 cm2 pour 250 microns d'épaisseur et a une efficacité de 7,1%. Des tests ont montré qu'il fonctionnait correctement pendant au moins 1000 heures à 65°C. Le constructeur indique qu'il pense pouvoir améliorer le rendement jusqu'à 10%.

Ces innovations permettent à l'entreprise de fabriquer à bas coût ces cellules solaires. De plus, la technologie d'impression permet d'ajouter de la couleur et des motifs, pour par exemple réaliser des papiers peints d'intérieur générateurs photovoltaïques.

Les échantillons devraient être disponibles en 2008. L'entreprise a fixé ses prévisions de vente pour 2010 à 700 millions de yens (4,7 millions d'euros) .

Solar market boom in California; Silicon Valley centre of new PV industry?

California was the world’s third largest market for solar photovoltaic systems in 2006.
Last year 58 MW were installed. System integrators expect that this market will grow at least by 100% in 2007. The California Solar Initiative (CSI) program, with 3.2 billion dollar government support, could feed an even faster growth in the years to come. What makes California interesting, besides these incentives and the attractive irradiation, is the entrepreneurial climate. Silicon Valley is becoming once again the centre of a booming industry based on silicon. Only this time it is with solar energy and sometimes even without the use of silicon. Dozens of Venture Capitalists, most of them with their roots in software and the internet, have found their way into this renewable industry and funded several startups, with dazzling ambitions, that are ready to provide the global PV market with new generation and lower cost solar technology. Companies like Nanosolar, Miasolé, Applied Materials and Sunpower are likely to play a very important role in the global PV industry.

The Californian PV market
Over the last few years the Californian PV market showed a growth rate of more than 40%. With the new CSI program started in 2007, it seems likely this growth rate will increase this year. Attractive schemes introduced in Germany and Spain have, in the past, resulted in market growth figures of 80-100% per year in the first years. Although the incentives in California are not as attractive as in those two countries, a growth rate higher than 40% seems more than likely. A 'conservative' scenario of 50% year on year growth is likely to result in total sales revenues of more than $800 million for PV systems in 2007, rising up to $2 billion by 2010. A more progressive growth scenario of 80% per year could even lead to sales revenues of $1 billion in 2007 up to $4.7 billion by 2010. In the graph below the ‘conservative scenario’ of 50% per year has been drafted, leading to around 90 MW of new installed power in 2007 up to 300 MW in 2010. In an 80% growth scenario these figures could be 105 MW in 2007 and 620 MW in 2010. There are still some bureaucratic hurdles to be overcome in implementation of the CSI. Therefore the results over the whole of 2007 will provide a better indication for likely growth figures in the coming years. It will be exciting to see whether California can hold its position as the third largest market in the world with the currently exploding Spanish PV market.

International PV trade mission to California
From 10 to 15 June an international PV trade mission will be organized, to learn more about business opportunities in California and to visit the new global PV manufacturers located in the “Solar Silicon Valley” region. The organization is in the hands of SolarPlaza.com, the global PV marketplace, which previously organized similar tours to China, Spain, Italy and Greece. This event will bring together PV business executives and investors from many countries. This creates a dynamic environment and platform for high-level discussions about new business opportunities in the rapidly growing Californian and global solar energy market.
In cooperation with the California Solar Energy Industries Association, a special symposium on 11 June will discuss in detail the implications of the California Solar Initiative (CSI). Major stakeholders will present their views and experiences and discuss business opportunities. The tour will include company visits to the ‘hottest’ PV companies in the USA, like MiaSolé, Applied Materials and Sunpower. In another symposium, relatively young solar technology manufacturers will be in the spotlight among other presentations. SolFocus and Solaria will elaborate on their concentrator techniques, which lead to substantially lower investment costs per Wattpeak. Finally this trade mission will host a matchmaking event for Californian companies and investors with the international delegates, with introductory presentations about the California market potential.

USA in solar spotlight
For several reasons, solar PV in the USA is in the international spotlight.
Firstly of course, there is the 3.2 billion dollar in funding for the next 11 years initiated by Arnold Schwarzenegger. This long term incentive scheme creates a solid ground for new start-ups, and gives the green light for investors and international PV companies.
Secondly, the USA has always been a country with high involvement of venture capital. This business sector has long been searching for new booming industries since the dot-com crisis. The global solar energy market and industry have shown growth figures of over 30% for more than 5 consecutive years. And several relatively young companies have entered the New York stock exchange and collected serious amounts of capital. The timing of the movie and road show by Al Gore couldn’t be better to stimulate the interest of the capital market for solar energy.
The third reason is the growing interest in thin-film technology. The enormous growth of the PV market caused a silicon shortage within the solar industry in recent years. This led to high prices on the spot market, up to 10 times the value this industry always put in their long-term business models. Consequently, the industry enhanced its search for technologies using less silicon, such as thin-film, amorphous silicon cells and modules and CIGS. It stimulated the development of thin-film, non-silicon technologies, like Cadmium Telluride. The world’s largest manufacturer of thin-film CadTel modules is the USA company and NY stock-listed First Solar. The company raised 300 million $ in an IPO last November, grew 300% in production in 2006 and will extend its production capacity with new plants in the USA, Germany and Malaysia to 200 MW.

Venture capital push
The USA has always had a strong position in research and production of thin-film technologies. Thus it is no surprise that the venture capital firms found their way to the start-ups in California working on this, especially those working with alternatives for silicon feedstock. The result of all this is that within a few years several of these start-up companies collected capital to get started and currently are presenting amazing ambitions.
Recently, another issue focused attention on thin-film in the global market. More and more countries are launching feed-in tariff systems to provide incentives for large-scale solar application. Most often the tariff level has been based on experiences with the currently-dominating crystalline module technology. Imagine if you can build multi-megawatt solar power plants in Spain for example, with slightly less efficient thin-film modules that are two or more times cheaper? This would save millions of dollars and push the return on investment way above the current 10%.

Nanosolar, Google and a top-3 position in 2007
Take Nanosolar, founded in 2002 and backed by investors like the founders of Google. Its approach is to develop and produce thin-film solar cells 10 times less costly, focusing on roll-printing of Copper Indium Gallium Selenium (CIGS) technology. This thin-film technology is still playing a minor role in the global PV market. But the guys at Nanosolar have high ambitions. In 2006 they received 75 million dollars of new capital, one of the highest ‘clean technology’ investments that year. Their aim is to realize 430 MW of cell production capacity by 2007 at locations in the USA and Germany. This quantity would have ranked Nanosolar in the top three largest cell manufacturers worldwide in 2006. According to CEO Martin Roscheisen, their technology will deliver cells that cost five times less than conventional crystalline silicon solar cells.

More CIGS technology

Also on the way to deliver cost-effective solar CIGS technology is MiaSolé in Santa Clara, California. The company raised 16 million dollars of investments in 2005, started production in the last quarter of 2006 and aims to have a production capacity of 200 MW by the end of 2007. Unlike crystalline silicon solar cells, CIGS cells can be printed on flexible sheets of foil or other material. According to David Pearce, CEO of MiaSolé, his company will produce both glass-based and flexible modules.

Source: MiaSolé

Underlining the MiaSolé ambitions is that several blog sites published the rumour that they are planning an IPO within 18 months. More recently, completely new companies like Solyndra and Solopower raised 79 and 10 million dollars respectively to fund their CIGS manufacturing plans. Are these companies the only ones working on this technology? No, they are in good company with DayStar Technologies, Global Solar, Honda Motor Company, Würth in Germany and last but not least Shell Solar. It is Shell’s only activity in solar energy after selling their crystalline solar business to the German company Solar World.

Booming business for equipment manufacturer Applied Materials
The dazzling ambitions of the new manufacturers offer beautiful business opportunities for thin-film production equipment manufacturers. The Californian rising star in this field is Applied Materials, a leading semiconductor equipment manufacturer, which has set a target of $500 million for their PV business in 2010. It has already sold several production lines to major existing and new thin-film module manufacturers. Among their customers are the world’s second largest cell manufacturer, Q-Cells, and the newly established company Sunfilm. The latter is backed by investors Good Energies and NorSun AG, both very familiar in the solar industry. The lines will be able to produce the world’s first 5.7m2 tandem thin-film photovoltaic modules on glass substrate. Recently also, the new Spanish module manufacturer T-Solar Global S.A. ordered such a production line. These large modules will be 4 times bigger than today’s largest solar panels. T-Solar rated the production capacity as 40 MW. Applied Materials has found customers all over the world. One of the world’s largest companies in CD-manufacturing, Moser Baer India Ltd., selected Applied Materials to supply a similar production line of 40 MW capacity. With their extensive experience in high volume manufacturing, Moser Baer India expects it can drive down the cost for modules substantially. Applied Materials expects it will be able to produce equipment for CIGS-technology in the near future, which could bring them more customers closer to their base.

Only winners
Are only start-ups looking at thin-film technology? Absolutely not. The major brands in the market like Q-cells, Suntech Power, Sharp, etc, have all initiated research and production initiatives in the thin-film technology area.
Is the recent growth of thin-film technology an unexpected phenomenon?
Not really. More than a decade ago, top researchers and scientists predicted that, whatever will be done to make crystalline silicon solar cells cheaper, such as increasing production volumes and improving efficiency, it will never reach the low-cost production level possible with fully automated production using thin-film technologies. The obvious reasons lie in the level of automation, energy and feed-stock needed. The industry focuses on bringing the cost down in order to achieve “grid parity” for end users, with the production cost of a solar kWh being equal to current market prices on the grid. Such a market will no longer be dependent on government support. Then the market potential will be beyond imagination. Some experts believe “grid parity” in certain market segments can be reached within 5 years. A challengingly short period for such a dynamic industry.
Will all of this mean the end of crystalline silicon technology? Certainly not. At the moment, more than 90% of all solar modules sold worldwide are based on this still developing and dominant technology. Efficiencies are constantly improved, the global production scale and (research) infrastructure is enormous. This technology is preferred for several applications and the price of solar-grade silicon is likely to drop next year due to massive new investments by the industry.
Look at the unprecedented growth of SunPower Corporation, realizing a three-fold increase in their revenues for 2006, up to $236.5 million from $78.7 million in 2005. SunPower is famous for its high-efficiency back-contact crystalline silicon solar cells with an efficiency currently rated at 22%. The cells and modules have a uniquely attractive, all-black appearance and the efficiency is the highest commercially available in the global market. Sunpower will expand its production capacity to 207 MW in 2008, almost double the size of 2007. SunPower took over PowerLight last year, a leading global provider of large-scale solar power systems, with over 100 megawatts installed, which will give a poll position in the growing Californian PV market.

With the above observations, it can be concluded that the USA is on its way back to the frontline of the global PV industry and market developments. With new upcoming markets not only in California, but also in other US states and countries like Spain, Italy and Greece, a further growth of the global PV market of at least 30% per year for the coming years seems likely, with next-generation solar technologies and an expected rapidly growing domestic market. This will create room for a range of (new) technologies and new companies, creating winners and no losers. Only some winners will win a little bit more.

Source: SolarPlaza.com

Projet d'installation solaire thermique à collecteurs linéaires de Fresnel

"Un projet solaire thermique allemand de démonstration utilisant des collecteurs de Fresnel est en train de voir le jour sur la 'Plataforma Solar de Almeria' dans le sud de l'Espagne. Contrairement aux centrales solaires thermiques conventionnelles (fours solaires paraboliques), le système étudié est constitué de plusieurs rangées de miroirs plans rotatifs qui s'orientent en fonction de la position du soleil. Ces collecteurs linéaires 'de poursuite du soleil', situés au niveau du sol, concentrent la lumière sur un tube thermique, muni d'un revêtement hautement sélectif. L'installation fait une centaine de mètres de long.






L'optimisation des composants clefs de ce nouveau type de centrale a fait l'objet de recherches importantes à l'institut Fraunhofer des systèmes d'énergie solaire (ISE). Sur la base d'études théoriques, les scientifiques de Freibourg estiment que les coûts de production d'électricité à l'aide de cette technologie peuvent être inférieurs à 0,12 euro par kWh dans les pays bénéficiant d'un bon ensoleillement.

Pour ce projet, l'institut ISE coopère avec le centre aérospatial allemand (DLR) et les partenaires industriels MAN Ferrostaal Power Industry GmbH et Solar Power Group GmbH. La construction de la centrale à Almeria est soutenue par le ministère fédéral de l'environnement (BMU).

Les énergies renouvelables, et en particulier l'énergie solaire, pourraient couvrir 50% de la demande énergétique globale d'ici 2050 et jouer un rôle particulièrement important pour la production d'électricité.

Premiers coups de pioche pour la plus grande centrale photovoltaïque du monde

La construction de la plus grande centrale électrique solaire au monde, qui couvrira une surface équivalente à 200 terrains de football et produira 40 millions de kilowatts par an, a commencé lundi à Brandis, ont annoncé les autorités de l'Etat régional de Saxe.

Le volume des investissements consacrés au parc solaire « Waldpolenz », construit par la société Juwi, se monte à près de 130 millions d'euros. La construction, sur un aéroport militaire désaffecté, doit être achevée d'ici à la fin 2009.

Cette centrale solaire doit permettre d'éviter l'émission d'environ 25.000 tonnes de CO2 chaque année, selon la société Juwi.

Avec un prix attendu de près de 3 250 euros par KW, la centrale photovoltaïque de Brandis se situe à un niveau 20 à 40 % en dessous du prix normal du marché.