Which PV Manufacturers Are the Most EcoFriendly?

With rapidly increasing global module production volumes, managing the environmental footprint of PV module manufacturing has taken on great urgency. Solar energy's supporters and detractors alike readily acknowledge the potential environmental and public-health risks that manufacturing can pose.

Myths, misinformation and corporate opacity, however, often interfere with honest dialogue about the problem and investigation into possible solutions. In its newly released 2011 Solar Scorecard, nonprofit organization Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) brings concrete data points and rankings into the discussion.

The scorecard rates the world's major PV module manufacturing players on four "green manufacturing" criteria: product takeback and recycling, worker health and safety issues at PV facilities and in the supply chain, chemical use and lifecycle analysis, and company disclosure statements.

All scores are based on manufacturers' responses to a survey from SVTC. Although 40 firms were asked to participate, only 15 responded - perhaps a telling survey finding in itself when a primary emphasis is on transparency and accountability.

Overall, Germany-based crystalline PV module manufacturer SolarWorld took the No. 1 spot, with an overall score of 91 out of 100. The company received top marks for product takeback and recycling, as well as for supply chain and green jobs.

In its survey responses, SolarWorld garnered points for such environmentally friendly actions as sending its returned modules to a third-party recycling facility, prohibiting the export of end-of-life modules from developed countries to developing countries, and conducting audits to monitor its supply chain for environmental and health issues. The company also stated that its does not use prison labor for production or recycling.

SolarWorld lost several points in SVTC's chemical-use and lifecycle-analysis category for using lead in its products. The company was far from the only lead-user; SVTC found that only two of 15 respondents manufacture modules that are free of both lead and cadmium - two notoriously toxic materials closely associated with PV manufacturing.

More encouragingly, the report found that all five of the manufacturers that have undergone the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure passed the test. However, of the three manufacturers that took a comparable California test, one failed both of the test's portions, and the remaining two each failed one portion.

Behind SolarWorld, China-headquartered Trina Solar placed second in the manufacturer rankings, with a score of 89. The company was followed by Norway-based REC, Arizona-based First Solar and Colorado-based Abound Solar, which each earned a score of 87. SunPower (85 points), Solon (84), Sovello (83), Calyxo (82) and Yingli Solar (72) rounded out the top 10.

SVTC believes that based on the results of the scorecard, the industry still has time to establish a less toxic manufacturing and disposal footprint to complement PV's green electricity production. Based on the historical path of the electronics industry, however, that window of opportunity will soon be closing.

"The solar PV industry's rapid growth makes it critical to focus on industry innovation on reducing toxic materials use and on developing products that are easier and safer to recycle," the organization says. SVTC also called for the industry to build domestic recycling infrastructure that adheres to proximity principles.

The full Solar Scorecard, with sortable rankings and full survey responses from manufacturers, is available from SVTC here.

Thin-Film Gets a Boost in India

Abound Solar, a manufacturer of cadmium telluride thin-film photovoltaic solar modules, has entered into a long-term sales agreement with Solarsis.

The companies will work together to provide solutions based on Abound's thin-film modules serving project developers in the Indian market. Solarsis will also establish a test facility with the purpose of optimizing balance-of-system designs around Abound Solar's modules that will lower total system costs for customers.

The first project under this agreement will be a 1 MW ground-mount array in Ananthapur, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India.

SOURCE: Abound Solar

Abound Solar to Hire 1,200 People

A Colorado solar energy company's expansion is expected to create 1,200 new jobs within the next couple of years, but people won’t necessarily need experience in the renewable energy sector to be hired.

Abound Solar, based in Longmont, Colorado, and founded in 2007, makes cadmium telluride thin-film photovoltaic solar modules.

"They're primarily used in industrial, commercial applications, usually ground mounted to larger scale solar installations," Bob Grier, senior vice president of operations for Abound, explained.

About 90 percent of the panels that are manufactured in their plant head to Germany, the world’s largest market for solar energy, Grier said.

Thanks to an influx of cash from a $400 million loan guaranteed through the U.S. Department of Energy and an additional $110 million in equity financing, the company is expanding its production and will be in need of new employees in both Colorado and Indiana.

"How many hires is always a moving target for us," Dennis Stoltenberg, vice president of human resources, told Fox News.

"We anticipate probably as we get rolling into this year and the year after, all things aligned right, we'll probably be at a head count of 1,200 in the U.S.," he said.

The expansion will create a demand for people in manufacturing positions to work on the additional production lines, Stoltenberg said, but only some of the new hires for these jobs will be required to have solar energy backgrounds.

"There's a lot of skills that are transferable from any manufacturing environment: the ability to understand, you know listening to the rhythm of a machine, so you can understand if something is wrong," Stoltenberg said. "That's not unique to just the solar manufacturing world. That's a manufacturing experience and a lot of those skills are transferable."

Pay range for technicians and operators is $15 to $20 per hour, depending on experience.

The company will also be looking for engineers with positions that they expect will pay somewhere between $75,000 and $150,000 per year. These candidates will likely have education levels that begin with bachelor's degrees up to PhD's and Master's, Stoltenberg said.

Even in a job market flush with unemployed, finding the specific expertise required by the company may be a challenge, he admitted.

"One of the things that I think we're experiencing in the solar manufacturing world," Stoltenberg said, "is it is an emerging manufacturing business. So people with past experiences aren't exactly certain how what they have done, represents them well for job titles in our industry. And what we're also discovering is that lots of solar manufacturing companies call jobs differently."

Residents in Tipton, Indiana, stand to gain the most in terms of new job openings; Abound has purchased a million-square-foot building in the state that is being built to their specifications.

"The reason we're going to Indiana, we looked all over the U.S. for manufacturing facilities capable of supporting what we want to do long term," Grier said. "We we're going to build a plant for a lack of a better term, kind of a bomber plant, large scale manufacturing facility."

Abound said it will use multiple recruiting tools, including social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to spread the word.

If you are interested in following Abound's progress and timelines for hiring, visit their website for more information.

Source:  Abound Solar