Global Solar Introduces Flexible BIPV based on CIGS

In the latest sign of the coming of age of flexible CIGS photovoltaic devices, Global Solar Energy has unveiled a lightweight module targeted at the commercial and industrial flat-rooftop market. The copper-indium-gallium (di)selenide module, called the PowerFLEX BIPV, has a large 5.75m × 0.50m format and a 300W power rating.

Company officials told PV-Tech that the new thin-film PV product has been submitted for UL, IEC, and JEC certification, which they expect to be completed by the end of the year, with the commercial launch set for the first quarter of 2010.

Jean-Noel Poirier, Global Solar’s VP of marketing and business development, said that “the core channel partners are the roofing companies, the roofing membrane manufacturing companies.” Global Solar has been sending samples to these customers in anticipation of the market rollout.

“They want a piece of the PV action…they want a PV product specially designed for roofs,” he added.

CFO/COO Steve Alexander credits “the nine or ten key early adopters” that helped “ensure that we’re making a product that is exponentially better than anything else out there today, and they’ve been really key in the final development of this product. They’re perfectly happy to do their objective qualification alongside our certification, so we come together at the same time, and we’re ready to sell to them and they’re ready to [buy], for the 2011 purchase cycle.”

The Tucson, AZ-based company cites several advantages of its flexible modules over traditional roof-mounted rigid glass module-based systems, including the light weight, nonpenetrating and nonperforating installation, minimal wind load, conformal integration, and aesthetic appeal.

It also sees 30-40% savings in balance of systems (BOS) and installation costs, since the modules lie flat on the roof with no mounting structure and can occupy more rooftop real estate, thus increasing the watts per project.

Global Solar’s PowerFLEX BIPV will have a 25-year power output warranty (with the standard 90% performance guarantee at 10 years and 80% at 25 years) and a five-year product and workmanship warranty, according to Poirier.

He said that the company has run the modules through 3000 hours of damp heat testing on its own test equipment—three times the amount of time required for IEC certification.

The new product will go head to head with ECD Unisolar’s flexible amorphous-silicon thin-film PV module laminate line, as well as with emerging solar roofing solutions from fellow CIGS manufacturers, Ascent Solar and SoloPower. Citing a 12.6% aperture conversion efficiency, Global Solar claims the highest efficiency and power density per rooftop on the market.

“The value proposition is very much driven by the combination of efficiency and form factor,” Poirier told PV-Tech. “We can put a lot of watts in a large format and can generate economies of scale at BOS and installation.”

Alexander explained that the company “didn’t have to retool the factory to do this product. We took the existing string-module line and added a lamination/finishing operation.” He expects that once sales ramp up next year, about two-thirds of production will be dedicated to the BIPV line.

Because of the extreme moisture sensivity of the quartenary PV material, the barrier encapsulation layer has been identified as the key challenge for flexible CIGS modules to overcome in order for them to be market ready. Alexander believes Global Solar has an advantage over the other polycrystalline thin-film companies in that regard.

“Because we got into production before everyone else, we had the benefit of working with every one of the materials suppliers, and we continue to work with almost all of them, even the ones that our competitors are working with. We don’t know what, for example, SoloPower is doing exactly, but we know what their vapor-barrier [materials] suppliers are offering.”

“There are a lot of technically viable solutions out there, but the challenge is having a commercially viable solution. Because we’re ready and we’re fortunate enough to have tested the whole market for those films, we’ve been able to settle on some good solutions that have been very effective for us and that we can actually buy,” he added.

Although the new module has BIPV—building integrated photovoltaics—in its name, Poirier emphasized that the real addressable market is “rooftops with weight-bearing limits… commercial roofs with weight limitations where you can’t put glass PV modules on them without reinforcing the building.”

With that in mind, he believes that about 30-40% of commercial and industrial rooftops worldwide fall into that category and that the PV market for the subsector that Global Solar is targeting will reach somewhere between 1GW and 3GW by 2015.

California Will Drive Mid-sized Solar Projects with New Incentive Program

he California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has issued a proposed decision to launch a new renewable incentive program with the aim of driving the uptake of mid-sized renewable energy development. This next-generation feed-in tariff program will require investor-owned California utilities to purchase electricity from renewable energy systems between one and 20MW in size.

"California has robust policies for developing large, utility-scale solar power plants and for putting smaller systems on homes and businesses, but there is a clear gap in the middle. The CPUC proposal is designed to unlock that missing piece, providing an additional opportunity for solar market and job growth and for quickly bringing massive new amounts of clean energy to the state," said Adam Browning, executive director of Vote Solar, who will work with CPUC to implement these changes.

"Solar policy should provide the foundations for long-term market growth by providing a transparent process, a level playing field, and a reliable market opportunity," said Kevin Fox, of the law firm Keyes & Fox, which represents IREC, another advocate of the initiative. "This program achieves those larger policy goals through an innovative pricing mechanism that also protects California ratepayers and overcomes the legal challenges that have hindered widespread feed-in tariff development in the U.S."

The CPUC proposal establishes a 1GW pilot program for power from eligible mid-sized renewable energy systems. The program requires California's three largest investor-owned utilities to hold biannual competitive auctions into which renewable developers can bid. Utilities must award contracts starting with the lowest cost viable project and moving up in price until the MW requirement is reached for that round.

The program will use standard terms and conditions to lower transactional costs and provide the contractual transparency needed for effective financing. Development security and relatively short project development timelines ensure project viability. The commission can act to finalize and adopt the program in as soon as thirty days.

California Approves First CSP Plant Since 1990

The full California Energy Commission (CEC) unanimously approved NextEra Energy Resources' 250MW Beacon Solar Energy Project, the first concentrating solar power plant (CSP) to be approved in the state in a generation.

The CEC, which will take final decisions on several other large solar thermal plants in the coming weeks, has been racing to review the projects.

The permitting process has been lengthy - Beacon has been under review since March 2008 - and often contentious, encompassing issues of desert land use, protection of threatened and endangered species, and water use.

"Today’s action begins the journey of increasing clean renewable energy in California,” CEC Chairman Karen Douglas says in a statement.

According to the CEC, it hasn't approved a CSP plant since February 1990, when it gave the go ahead to Luz Solar Electric Generating Systems (SEGS) IX and Luz SEGS X.

A subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, the project development unit of energy company FPL Group, proposed the large-scale parabolic trough project on fallow agricultural land at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Kern County.

Unlike several other large CSP projects rushing to obtain permits this summer, Beacon would not be built on federal land and therefore does not require a seperate right of way from the Bureau of Land Management.

One major box is yet to be checked by NextEra - a purchaser for the gigawatts of energy Beacon would crank out each year.

Californian utilities are hungry for green energy to fulfill their increasing renewables requirements under state law.

The state is debating whether to elevate its current requirement that utilities get 20% of their electricity from renewable sources by the end of this year, to 33% by 2020.

Source:   ReCharge

Solar Cell Manufacturing Trends

The following are trends and developments now playing out in a big way as the solar industry moves out of its juvenile stage. These will give us important clues as to the success factors for the future:

1.  The silicon solar cell manufacturing industry is rapidly moving to lower cost countries such as China. This is actually a bit of a surprise to me as the industry is still dependent on government subsidies and I would have thought that the politicians would insist on more local production. To be clear, there will be plenty of local production as well, but the biggest production volumes will take place in lower cost countries.

2. The cost of materials and equipment is dropping fast.

3. The prices of solar cells and panels are coming down quickly.

4. The volume of solar cells as panels is increasing dramatically.

5. Competition among manufacturers will continue to intensify.

6. Demand is volatile. (This is particularly true for the solar industry, until the price becomes competitive with coal, as government subsidies are subject to change along with general economical dynamics.)

7. Production equipment is becoming steadily better and cheaper.

8. Material science is improving significantly.

9. Production and process expertise is improving very quickly.

I believe that the improvements in production and process expertise will contribute to helping the industry meet parity with coal quicker than otherwise expected. Process improvement leads to higher cell efficiency, which in turn helps drive down the cost per kWh.

“I believe that the improvements in production and process expertise will contribute to helping the industry meet parity with coal quicker than otherwise expected.”

Currently many production lines are purchased as complete lines, if not complete factories. A team of experts will commission the lines, enable them to achieve a certain level of performance and then basically say, “Don’t touch!” Even for the cell manufacturers that do purchase individual equipment and commission the lines themselves, there is currently a relatively limited understanding of the process capabilities. This is about to change, and the material suppliers and equipment vendors will contribute strongly to such process improvement.

Let’s use the metallization (firing) process for silicon solar cells as an example. The wafer’s thermal profile (time vs. temperature) has a significant impact on cell efficiency. The “sweet spot” of this thermal process depends on numerous variables such as the properties of the wafer, processes upstream of the firing furnace, properties of the firing material, the furnace and more. Furthermore, the thermal process is dynamic, meaning that over days and weeks, it drifts as the furnace lamps age, preventive maintenance introduces changes, wear and tear in the furnace, the wafer characteristics vary, etc.

Developing and maintaining an optimized thermal process will lead to higher cell efficiency. In a research project conducted by Heraeus, the cell efficiency increased by an incredible 0.51% simply by identifying the optimal wafer profile. Other case studies with actual manufacturers report 0.15% efficiency increases through thermal process optimization.

Because there are tens of millions of possible furnace setups (zone temperatures and conveyor speed), the process development will identify the appropriate process window (range of optimal profiles) and corresponding furnace setpoints. Once the process window is defined, it is a simple matter of transferring the identical process to all the production lines regardless of equipment age or brand name. Each furnace may have a different setup, but they all yield the same optimal profile on the wafers. Additionally, it is quick to adjust the process back into its “sweet spot” when it drifts. It needs to be quick as throughput is paramount to the profitability of the production lines. Actually, the process optimization does include optimizing the furnace throughput. This will, however, only lead to a real throughput gain when the furnace is the bottleneck in the production line.

”Since the production cost has not changed, virtually all of this revenue growth flows to the bottom line.”

The semiconductor manufacturing industry saw a tremendous increase in yield when the industry started maturing. To a large degree, it achieved this through better process control and improved production equipment and material. As the silicon solar cell manufacturing industry matures beyond its juvenile stage, it finds itself on the threshold of a similar development. It will move at warp speed because of the tremendous profit potential that will be unleashed. A leading furnace manufacturer recently calculated that increasing the cell efficiency by 0.10% for a modern 25 MW line would increase the revenue by more than $1/4 million per line per year. Since the production cost has not changed, virtually all of this revenue growth flows to the bottom line. This baby is growing up fast!

Source:  Solar Novus Today by Bjorn Dahle  To read more about the author click here

France to Cut Solar FIT by 12%

France has decided to cut the feed-in-tariff paid for solar-power generated electricity by 12%, according the French newspaper Le Figaro, as passed on by Bloomberg. The wire service later noted that the 12% cut applies to panels other than those installed on individual houses, and will be effective September 1.

Source:   SolarPlaza

New CIGS Solar Cell Efficiency Record

Researchers from the Germany Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) have broken a new efficiency record for thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide solar cells.

The researchers produced a 20.3 percent efficient cell, only a fraction less than the best multi-crystalline cells on the market. However, producing a cell in a lab is much different than mass production. CIGS cells typically reach about 10-11 percent when manufactured in large numbers.

The area of the world record cell is 0.5 square centimeters. The semiconducting CIGS layer and the contact layers have a total thickness of only four thousandths of a millimeter, making them 50 times thinner than standard silicon cells.

CIGS cells have received a lot of attention in recent years because of their high efficiency. But scaling the technology outside of the lab has been difficult because of the complexity of manufacturing. Many companies have been bogged down in building new manufacturing lines and have burned through copious amounts of capital with little to show.

Within the next years, the efficiency of the relatively low-priced CIGS thin-film solar modules will rise from about 11 percent to about 15 percent, say ZSW researchers. The question is: Will companies be able to finally capitalize on that efficiency gain? Or will they continue to be bogged down by high capital requirements and low product volumes?

Some companies, like the start-up Applied Quantum Technologies, have learned from the problems that have hurt CIGS producers and are taking a more modular, incremental approach to building manufacturing lines.

One of the older companies in the CIGS space, MiaSole, announced this week that it will be supplying the developer juwi Solar with 7.5 MW of modules for projects in Germany. Miasole said earlier this year that it would ship over 20-MW of product. However, it is still unclear if it will sell that much in the remainder of 2010.

Source:   Renewable Energy World

China Restricts Export of Rare-Earth Resources

Over the past 5 years, China has emerged as a world-leading producer of solar and wind technologies. Due to its insatiable appetite for energy, the country is quickly becoming a top installer of renewables as well.

China is still consuming coal and oil at astonishing rates, however. On average, the country installs a new coal-fired facility every two weeks. Some experts believe that this will set China back and negate the progress it has made in the development of renewables.

Even so, China will continue to be a leader in the export of wind and solar technologies.

There's another factor that could increase China's role as a central figure in the renewables space: Its control of 95% of the rare earth resources like Indium, Gallium and Lithium. These are central to the functionality of solar cells (CIGS and CdTe) and battery technologies for automotive and power storage applications.

This is not a surprise. But the announcement from Chinese officials last month that it would decrease shipment of these resources by 72% certainly was. The goal is for China to lure technology companies over to the country by giving them access to restricted resources. If it works, we may see a lot more clean energy firms moving over to China.

It has given such signals in the past. China actually made a similar announcement in 2009, raising the ire of the international community.

Already, companies are setting up shop en masse in China due to lower labor costs and the need to be closer to the burgeoning renewables market around Asia. This decision to restrict exports of rare resources will likely accelerate the trend.

The Wall Street Journal had a great piece on the subject and the Energy Collective had a piece of commentary on the implications of the export restrictions on the renewable energy industry.

Source:   Renewable Energy World

Making Smart Windows that Are Also Cheap

"Tunable" windows would let people adjust light and heat levels, but so far it's been hard to make them affordable.

Windows that absorb or reflect light and heat at the flick of a switch could help cut heating and cooling bills. A company called Soladigm has developed methods for making these "electrochromic" windows cheaply, making them more viable for homes and office buildings.

Existing electrochromic window designs cost around $100 per square foot. Soladigm has not disclosed how much its windows will cost, but some experts say the method could reduce the cost to around $20 per square foot.

The Milpitas, CA-based company uses a thin-film deposition process that creates conducting layers between two panes of glass for controlling the amount of sunlight and heat that can pass through. A homeowner or office dweller could control how much light or heat a window lets in or absorbs and reflects.

The company's windows contain two transparent conducting oxide films sandwiching an ion storage layer, an electrolyte, and an electrochromic layer--all between two layers of glass. Applying a low voltage to the conductive oxide kicks the ions out of the storage layer and across the electrolyte to meet with the electrochromic layer. The collision prompts the electrochromic material to absorb or reflect light. It also causes the material to darken, giving the window a tinted look. Reversing the voltage sends the ions back to its storage layer, causing the window to lighten in color and let more light in.

"We did a case study in five cities, and the average savings in commercial buildings are about 25 percent of the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning energy use annually," says Rao Mulpuri, CEO of Soladigm.

The trick to making electrochromic windows cheaply is the right materials and latest manufacturing method, says Mulpuri. Today's thin-film deposition equipment--the same used to make flat panel display and thin-film solar panels--is much better than that used a few decades ago, when the electrochromic window concept emerged.

Soladigm will use a tungsten oxide-based electrochromic layer for its first windows. Tungsten oxide can endure repeated cycling between ion-rich and ion-free stages-which makes it durable, says Delia Milliron, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) researcher in electrochromic materials. However, using tungsten oxide can heat up a window until it's too hot to touch; it also doesn't block infrared light very well, meaning it lets plenty of heat through. 

Source:  Technology Review

BIPV Market Gaining Traction

Similar to the way that the smart grid reflects the combination of energy management and information technology, building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is the marriage of 3 industries that so far have only worked together in marginal ways: architectural design, renewable energy, and building products.

Whenever you approach an industry from a different perspective, that’s when you produce very interesting products, said JD Albert of SRS Energy.  SRS produces curved roofing tiles made of PV that are designed to fit into the mission-style architecture of the southwestern region of the U.S.  Curved red clay roof tiles there are modeled after the Mediterranean roof styles found in Spain and elsewhere.

SRS Energy has roots in the roofing industry and saw the need for PV that would fully integrate – easily – into the roofs of these types of houses.  Since the region where houses with these types of roofs proliferate happens to be in areas of the world with the greatest amount of solar insolation, the combination of curved roofing tiles and PV should go far.  Albert said that SRS really views itself as a building product provider as opposed to a PV provider.

Solving two problems with one solution is a concept that is echoed by Pythagoras Solar, a company that makes double pane glass windows that incorporate PV and can generate renewable energy while also letting light through. The product is generally used as a building façade in large office buildings. BIPV has a real opportunity to add more value to solar, said Brendan Dillon, product manager for Pythagoras Solar.  And providing more value, in an integrated roof tile or a glass window that also increases building efficiency is what will eventually lead to cost reductions in the BIPV market.

Roland Schindler of the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems based in Cambridge, MA thinks that the number one issue the BIPV industry should be concerned with right now is cost.  “Aesthetics and cost,” he said.  We have to look at the entire energy consumption of the house or building, he explained, and then see where the BIPV product fits in.

till Far From Adoption

In Germany, the world’s biggest solar market, BIPV still only makes up about 2% of installed product so the industry still has a ways to go in order to increase uptake. (Left, a 1662 German farmhouse that was renovated in the 80's is the earliest example of BIPV in the country. Credit: Fraunhofer)

SRS Energy’s Albert views certification and standardization as a big factor in helping the industry gain market share.  While in the U.S., there is a BIPV standard, albeit still young, in Europe there isn’t one, he said.  Add to that the fact that each European country may have its own set of certification standards and tests for a BIPV product. “This is a big problem. You can go to Europe and, for one product, end up doing 4 different fire tests to go into 12 different countries,” he explained. “And also how much can you change a product and not have to re-certify?”

Not having one standard that is uniformly accepted costs the industry hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees.  And there are long lead times to get a product certified.  “For us, certifying is a multi-hundred-thousand dollar activity,” Albert said.

It also makes sense to certify installers of BIPV systems, Albert said.  Whereas SRS roof tiles are designed to be easily installed by roofers, in many parts of the country, roofers wouldn’t be allowed to perform installations unless they are also licensed electricians.

Since BIPV is more of a product for the construction industry, which is experiencing a slump right now, Pythagoras Solar’s Dillon said that construction companies could differentiate themselves in the industry by incorporating more BIPV or at least learning how to use it.  Green building and BIPV are segments of the market that are growing right now, even though construction as a whole is declining, he said.

And while new construction that incorporates BIPV certainly offers that “wow factor,” (see the lead image to this story) the BIPV industry would be remiss if it didn’t focus on retrofits.  “I think here in the U.S. the retrofit market is really dominating,” Fraunhofer’s Schindler said.

“Just focusing on new construction is a challenge,” said Albert, “because clearly there are millions and millions of existing buildings and construction is very slow right now.”

Future Growth is Expected

Roland Schindler pointed out in a presentation that in some regions of the world, more emphasis is being placed on energy net-zero or net-positive construction.  For example in France by 2020, all new buildings must be energy positive, meaning that they will generate more energy than they use.  Energy net-zero or net-positive construction will by definition incorporate more BIPV as developers will be forced to incorporate as much energy generation into the building façade as possible.  France also has a very high BIPV-specific feed-in tariff.

France of course is not alone.  Most of the EU is requiring that new construction be at least energy neutral by 2020 and countries such as Germany, the UK and Ireland, like France, are requiring new buildings to be energy positive by 2020.

Overall, Schindler believes that there is unlimited potential for BIPV both in space and demand.  They just need to get the costs down or figure out how to add value to an existing product, something SRS Energy and Pythagoras Solar have taken to heart.

Dillon of Pythagoras explained it this way: “It’s taken companies like SRS and Pythagoras and others to really design, from the beginning, a building material that also has PV so that roofers, glaziers, other construction trades can seamless integrate this into their current processes.”

Source:   Renewable Energy World

To hear the video and see some interesting comments click here.

Free Solar Panels Available To Some UK Households

A new plan has cropped up that promises to make solar energy available to many UK householders who could never afford it. Action groups warn participants to "proceed with caution."

In an effort to capitalize on the UK feed-in tariff, UK-based HomeSun announced that it will be giving away solar panels to more than 100,000 British households over the next 3 years. The company says it will spend £1 billion on the effort.

According to the company press release, HomeSun asks interested consumers to input information about their home on the HomeSun website and if the home qualifies, it could receive free solar panels that would be owned, operated and maintained by HomeSun for the next 25 years.  HomeSun states that in the UK an average solar PV system costs consumers approximately £11,000 and under the FIT the homeowner would see an average rate of return in the 5-8% range after 10 years.

Under the company plan, the homeowner only has to come up with £500 for the installation plus agree to pay a £5 monthly fee for the system.  HomeSun says customers will see the immediate benefit of lower monthly electricity costs from the solar energy generated.

Sound too good to be true?  It might be.

According to an article in the Guardian UK, consumers should be wary of the free panel offers and enter into transactions like this with their eyes wide open.  The article states:

Under the "free solar" model, a homeowner would save in the region of £2,750 on energy bills over 25 years, the length of the tariff offer. By paying for their own panels with a loan at 7.7% interest repaid over 10 years and earning income from the feed-in tariff, they could save around £6,506 over the same period.

Consumer watchdog organization, Consumer Focus, also issued a warning about the potential pitfalls of the plan.  The group has published an information sheet on microgeneration that includes 24 questions to ask before signing up for a free solar plan.  You can download the factsheet here.

Source:  Renewable Energy World

IEA Believes Solar Can Supply 20 to 25% of World Energy by 2050

The latest in a series of global Roadmaps by the International Energy Agency (IEA) argues that solar electricity could represent up to 20%–25% of total global electricity production by 2050.

This conclusion emerges from two new analyses from the agency: the Solar Photovoltaic (PV) and Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Roadmaps, which are designed to enable governments, industry and financial partners to implement measures to accelerate required technology development and uptake.

Highlighting the fact that the technologies will deploy in different yet complementary ways – PV mostly for on-grid distributed generation and helping to provide energy off-grid in rural areas and CSP largely providing despatchable electricity at utility-scale from regions with the brightest sun and clearest skies – collectively, PV and CSP could generate some 9000 TWh in 2050, the IEA believes.

According to the analysis, with effective policies in place, PV on residential and commercial buildings will achieve grid parity by 2020 in many regions. PV will become competitive at utility-scale in the sunniest regions by 2030 and provide 5% of global electricity by then. As PV matures into a mainstream technology, grid integration and management and energy storage are set to become key issues, the IEA says, adding that the PV industry, grid operators and utilities will need to develop new technologies and strategies to integrate large amounts of PV into flexible, efficient and smart grids. Nonetheless, by 2050, PV could provide more than 11% of global electricity, the Roadmap concludes, despite delivering just 0.1% of total global electricity generation currently.

Achieving this level of PV electricity supply – and the associated, environmental, economic and societal benefits – will require more concerted policy support, the agency says. Sustained, effective and adaptive incentive schemes are needed to help bridge the gap to PV competitiveness, along with a long-term focus on technology development that advances all types of PV technologies, including both commercially available and emerging and novel technologies.

Source:  Renewable Energy World    To read the full article   click here

Sticker-Like Lens Improves Solar Panel Efficiency by 12.5%

SolOptics, the solar division of Genie Lens, has created a new lens design that improves solar PV performance by up to 12.5 percent.  The new thin-film design can be applied to any PV module, just like a sticker.

The new design is created by the company's ray tracing software that embosses microstructures onto thin polymer film.  That film can then be applied to solar panels much like tinting film can be applied to a window.  In testing by NREL, the microstructures in the lens improved PV efficiency by 10 to 12.5 percent.

The microstructures in the lens provide greater light absorption, an anti-reflective coating that allows more light capture, even if the light is off-center or off-angle, and lengthen the path of light so that more electrons are stimulated and therefore more electricity generated.

Another great feature is that the lens can be applied to PV modules, regardless of what they're made of -- silicon, CIGS or cadmium telluride -- and to newly-manufactured or already existing units.

via Greentech Media

Suntech Power Stops Producing Thin Film Panels

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. plans to overhaul operations at its Shanghai, China, manufacturing facility to focus on the manufacture of crystalline silicon solar cells. As part of the restructuring, the company has ceased the manufacture of amorphous silicon thin-film solar panels.

Suntech expects to incur a thin-film equipment non-cash impairment charge of approximately $50 million to $55 million in the second quarter of this year. The company cites "rapid cost reduction and improving competitiveness of crystalline silicon solar panels" as the reasons for its decision to switch manufacturing focus at the Shanghai factory.

SOURCE: Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd.

Yingli Starts Operation of In-House Polysilicon Facility

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. says its in-house polysilicon manufacturing facility, Fine Silicon Co. Ltd. has begun commercial operation. Fine Silicon announced it has commenced trial production and reached certain key technology and operating milestones in December 2009.

With monosilane-based polysilicon manufacturing technology, the polysilicon plant, with a designed capacity of 3,000 metric tons per year is capable of producing solar-grade and electronic-grade polysilicon through energy-efficient and environmentally friendly manufacturing processes, Yingli says. No trichlorosilanes or chlorides are used in the manufacturing process.

SOURCE: Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd.

Kyocera to Start Production At Yasu - It's Largest Domestic PV Plant

Kyocera Corporation today announced that it will begin full-scale production at its new Yasu solar cell manufacturing facility in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.

The new plant, which was completed in March of this year and has already finished production line testing, is the largest of the company’s domestic manufacturing facilities, and will be producing the company’s highly-efficient multicrystalline silicon solar cells.

The new Yasu Plant employs an enhanced manufacturing line, and will produce solar cells with a 16.9% energy conversion efficiency — one of the world’s highest for mass-produced multicrystalline cells.

In tandem with the company’s existing Shiga Yohkaichi Plant (Japan), the new plant will contribute to meeting Kyocera’s annual production target of 1GW of solar cells by March 2013.

In order to meet expanding global demand, Kyocera is ramping up its annual production to 600MW this fiscal year — an increase of 50 percent over the previous fiscal year. Furthermore, by concentrating on product quality, the company is working to decrease the cost of solar energy by improving cell conversion efficiency and enhancing the company’s own productivity.

Funding Approved For Italy's Largest PV Manufacturing Plant (Thin Film)

Today, Enel Green Power, Sharp and STMicroelectronics have signed a binding letter of commitment for a project financing agreement for 150 million euros for the development of what will be Italy's biggest photovoltaic panel factory.

The 3Sun equal share joint venture thus enters its operational phase, in line with the agreement signed by the three partners on January 4th, 2010, with its statutory bodies having been appointed today. The goal of the joint venture is to start operations at the Catania factory for the integrated production of innovative photovoltaic cells and panels.

The Sicilian factory's initial photovoltaic panel production capacity, equivalent to 160 MW per year, is to be financed through a combination of self-financing, funding from the CIPE (the Italian Joint Ministerial Committee for Economic planning) - which recently set aside 49 million euros for this project - and project financing provided by leading banks.

Each partner has underwritten one third of the equity - with a commitment of 70 million euros in cash or in tangible and intangible assets, as previously announced – and holds one third of the shares in the new joint venture.

Each partner brings specialized knowledge and skills to 3Sun. Enel Green Power is expert in developing renewable energy on an international scale and in project management. Sharp contributes its exclusive triple-junction thin-film technology, in production since the spring of this year at the Sakai factory in Japan. STMicroelectronics has manufacturing know-how with highly trained specialists in state-of-the-art technology sectors such as microelectronics.

The factory, whose yearly output is expected to reach 480 MW over the coming years, will be Italy's largest photovoltaic panel manufacturer from the first day of operation. Panel production at the Catania plant is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2011.

Enel Green Power and Sharp have also created a separate joint venture, Enel Green Power & Sharp Solar Energy – ESSE, for the construction and joint management of solar farms for the generation and sale of electricity in the Mediterranean region, using the panels produced by the Catania plant.

The total installed capacity is projected to be over 500 MW by 2016.

Factory output will also serve the most promising solar markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean area, the region in which Enel Green Power and Sharp already have extensive sales networks. Enel.si, a subsidiary of Enel Green Power specialised in the installation of photovoltaic systems for the retail market, will also take part in the marketing, selling panels through its own franchise network of over 500 approved installers, located throughout Italy.

Stanford Researchers Develop New Solar Energy Conversion Method

Researchers at Stanford University are working on a new way of converting solar energy. Their work may lead to technology could increase solar panel efficiency by up to 50 percent.

The new method is called PETE — photon enhanced thermionic emission — and may allow solar panels to harness the wasted heat in today’s generating process. Today’s conventional solar energy systems convert the sun’s energy into electricity by either electrical or thermal conversion. PETE, says lead research Nick Melosh, fuses the two conversion methods. Here’s how it works:

A main challenge posed by silicon-based solar panels is that efficiency decreases as ambient temperature goes up. Hot regions that have an abundance of direct sunlight — like parts of the American southwest — are great places to install these kinds of panels. But they could be greater still if there existed solar panels that performed well in high temperatures.

That’s exactly what the Stanford researchers are working on.

The metal Caesium (CS), pictured above, could be the key in increasing the efficiency rate of solar cells by more than 50 percent.

When only silicon is used, just a portion of the light spectrum is actually used to generate electricity. The rest of the energy is wasted because of the decline in efficiency rate at high temperatures.

By adding a thin layer of caesium, researchers enable the silicon to produce electricity from both light and heat. So as conventional silicon-based semiconductors decline at 100 degrees Celsius, the PETE method doesn’t even hit its top efficiency rate until 200 degrees Celsius.

The next step for the the Stanford team is to design a prototype that can be added on to existing systems. We’ll keep you posted.

Source:  getsolar.com

Cumulative Installed PV Will Exceed 100 GW in Next 5 Years

Cumulative PV installations will top 120 GW by the end of 2014, according to a new report from IMS Research. Annual PV installations will grow steadily at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 20% between 2011 and 2014.

In these four years, some 80 GW of new PV capacity will be added globally. Growth rates are predicted to slow over the next four years (compared to the huge 95% growth rate forecast for 2010), IMS Research adds.

Global market share for PV installations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) will fall from 79% in 2009 to 48% in 2014 as major European markets stagnate and Asian and North American market growth accelerates. Despite the introduction of several new feed-in tariffs (FITs) and emerging European PV markets, EMEA's PV market is predicted to remain dominated by just three countries, which will account for more than 60% of new installations in 2014.

According to the report, Asia's PV market will grow at a CAGR of 45% over the next five years, installing around 10 GW of new capacity in 2014. Strong growth is predicted for both Japan and China through current and future FIT schemes and public tenders of large-scale PV plants.

By 2014, China will be the world's largest PV market, installing more than both U.S. and Germany (the second and third largest markets). China will become a dominant force in both the supply of PV components and demand for PV systems, with utility-scale plants leading the country’s PV market development, the company says.

Finally, by 2015, there will be at least 25 countries installing more than 100 MW annually. The U.K. will be one of the fastest-growing markets globally (in percentage terms), with more than 1 GW of new PV capacity added over the next five years, IMS Research predicts.

"The PV market remains highly volatile and cyclical in nature," says report author and PV research director Ash Sharma. "Market maturity is still some years away, and although investment in the industry presents large risks, there are also major potential rewards to be reaped, as the long-term outlook is very positive - with over 100 GW of new PV capacity being added in the next five years."

SOURCE: IMS Research

Spain Proceeds With Plans to Cut Solar Subsidies After Talks Break Down

Spain is proceeding with plans to cut prices for solar power from new generators, the Industry Ministry said, after talks on broader changes to renewable energy subsidies broke down last week.
Prices for power from ground-based panels may be cut by 45 percent while photovoltaic generators mounted on large roofs face a 25 percent reduction and plants on small roofs will see a 5 percent cut, the ministry said in a statement.

The price cuts are included in a draft law sent to the national energy regulator for consultation.

Discussions on broader changes to subsidies for solar power were suspended after ministers and company executives failed to agree on prices for existing plants. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s government wants to keep a lid on electricity costs by paring back a 2007 law granting above- market prices for clean-energy producers.

Spain’s 52,000 photovoltaic-panel installations earn as much as 440 euros ($573) a megawatt-hour, or almost 10 times the futures price for 2011 power in the wholesale market.

A spokesman for Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian said in April the government may cut the rate paid to existing plants in addition to ones yet to be built, as the government seeks to boost the competitiveness of Spanish industry by reining in power prices.

Funds including London-based HG Capital and Denmark’s AP Pensions have argued that the government was reneging on its legal obligation to maintain the subsidies for 25 years.

The Spanish Banking Association estimated domestic banks have loaned 40 billion euros to renewable-energy projects. Some 600 photovoltaic plant operators may face bankruptcy if the subsidies are cut, the Photovoltaic Industry Association has said.

Source:  Solar Knowledge Blog

Solar is Now Cheaper than Nuclear

Solar photovoltaic system costs have fallen steadily for decades. They are projected to fall even farther over the next 10 years. Meanwhile, projected costs for construction of new nuclear plants have risen steadily over the last decade, and they continue to rise.

The Backdrop for Change

Electricity supply systems all over the world are facing the most rapid changes in their operating environments and technologies since the formative years of the industry. A tide of change is sweeping over the industry, one that challenges industry managers to stay abreast of these developments or risk presiding over costly anachronisms. The era of “build plants, sell power” is over; the rapid changes underway require a more agile, many-faceted approach to meeting energy demand in a responsible manner.

For thirty years, increasing the efficiency of electricity use has been known to be a faster and cheaper alternative to building new power plants. Energy efficiency advances are working their way into the marketplace and into consumer habits so that electricity demand is hardly growing at all. The accelerated adoption of energy-saving methods in the building industry, in the manufacture of appliances and lighting, and in retrofitting existing buildings means that annual electricity demand in homes, businesses and public buildings soon will begin a slow decline.

The partial electrification of transportation (electric vehicles) will open new markets for electricity, but when used in electric vehicles, electricity is much more efficient than fossil fuels. The overall additional demand will be modest, and can be accommodated at off-peak times, or even better, powered by solar installations.

The emergence of wind power as a relatively cheap source of electricity has further complicated life for the traditional generating industry. Those who think it too intermittent to be useful have had to revise their opinions as successively larger amounts of wind power have been absorbed into many utility systems. Careful modeling has shown that penetrations of 20%, climbing to 30%, of overall electricity usage can be accommodated — mainly by rearranging the management of existing generation equipment rather than by building extensive backup facilities.

Combined heat and power (cogeneration) has long been a means of generating electricity by burning a fuel for a primary use, then using the leftover heat for other purposes. Industries using process heat have found this beneficial for years. Commercial buildings with heating and cooling loads now also find it economical.
 

By comparison, coal and nuclear plants are extremely inefficient; they waste large amounts of heat — two-thirds of the energy content of the fuels — and consume enormous quantities of water in the process.

The Sun is Changing the Game

By 2009, energy efficiency methods, combined heat and power, wind farm generation and solar water heating had all challenged the traditional business model of “build plants; sell power” favored by the big utilities. All are cheaper and can be put into service much faster than building new fossil and nuclear power plants.

Wind energy can complement solar to offset the intermittency of each technology. Several states are developing offshore wind turbines along the eastern seaboard.

Now, in 2010, comes the final blow to the old way of doing business for utilities. In many places around the world, solar electricity, once the most expensive of the “renewables,” has become cheaper than electricity from new nuclear plants.

According to researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, solar photovoltaic system costs declined from $12 per installed watt in 1998 to $8 in 2008 on average — a one-third decline in ten years. In 2009 and 2010, costs declined more rapidly as module prices fell sharply, bringing the 12-year system cost decline to 50%. At mid-2010, based on figures provided by North Carolina installers, large systems can produce electricity at 12–14 cents or less per kilowatt-hour, while the middle range for residential systems comes in at 13–19 cents per kilowatt-hour, hence the average cost shown of 16 cents.

The possibility of selling renewable credits tilts the advantage farther in the direction of solar electricity. Experienced industry observers see photovoltaic system costs continuing to decline in the coming decade as the industry — from cell makers to installers — expands at a record pace and moves rapidly along the typical industrial “learning curve.” Present mid-range costs are 14–19 cents per kilowatt-hour for rooftop solar electric systems, and approximately 14 cents for commercial-scale systems. Sector-wide costs in 2020 are projected to be 7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Similarly, solar water heating has an “avoided cost” advantage over heating water with electricity from a new nuclear plant. Water heating accounts for 15–25% of a typical homeowner’s power bill. In 2009 more than 7,000 megawatts (MW) of solar generating capacity was installed in the world, of which half was in Germany. In the U.S., 429 MW was installed, with California and New  Jersey as the leading states. North Carolina installed 8 MW.

Cumulative worldwide installations at the end of 2009 passed the 22,000 MW mark. Germany, Spain and Japan led in total installed capacity with 9000 MW in Germany alone. The U. S figure stood at 1653 MW of which 1102 MW was in California and 128 MW in New Jersey. 

The PV market is poised to explode worldwide as a “least-cost” way to generate electricity. By comparison, no U.S. nuclear power plants have been put into service in many years. Most proposed reactors are in the range of 1100 to 1200 MW. The dramatic change facing the utility industry is highlighted by the observation that efficiency gains, combined heat and power, and most of the solar supply is located at homes, businesses and public buildings, and is not sourced from centralized power plants. The power industry and the energy economy as a whole are being driven toward this “distributed” power model.

Source:  Reve  to read the full article click here