The initial reports from a key number of PV manufacturers and suppliers highlighted that little damage to manufacturing operations occurred as a result of the massive earthquake last Friday. However, concern is now focused on the shortage of electricity that affects approximately 45 million people in Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) service area covering Tokyo, Tochigi, Gunma, Ibaraki, Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama and Yamanashi prefectures.
TEPCO said that its service area would be divided into 5 zones and would need to suspend electricity supply for several hours each day to each zone on a rolling basis.
However, Tokyo is being sparred cuts at the moment as central government, company headquarters and financial institutions are heavily located in the capital city.
The Japanese Government has urged the country to conserve energy for the time being, which was also followed by major industries, resulting in plant closures across the country.
With TEPCO suffering from acute energy transmission shortages due to the shutdown of nuclear reactors along the east coast region of the country, the utility said that rolling blackouts would more than likely remain in place through to the end of April.
However, other power providers such as Tohoku Electric Power Co did not expect to implement blackouts, though it would be constantly evaluating the situation.
A prolonged disruption to power supplies would be expected to disrupt PV manufacturers output over the coming months, though with many in central and southern regions, disruptions could be minimal.
The problem will focus on those suppliers that do become impacted by TEPCO’s rolling blackouts, which would be expected to reduce capacity output during this period and could impact customers in other regions in their ability to continue full production.
In the case of previous major earthquakes in industrialized nations, such as Taiwan, which saw replacement equipment parts and materials hold back a return to full production, long after power supplies were restored.
Thermal processes such as ingot production depends on highly reliable power supplies as the processes have long cycle times. Despite planned blackouts, production would be severely limited or completely curtailed until full restoration of power.
Showing posts with label PV manufacturing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PV manufacturing. Show all posts
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Trina Solar Teams up with Zep Solar
Zep Solar has signed a licensing and marketing agreement with Trina Solar that highlights two trends in the photovoltaic industry: Reducing mounting system materials and costs and offering pre-designed systems to distributors and installers.
Trina is incorporating Zep’s framing design (Zep Groove) into its solar panel production, and it plans to launch not only the panels but also a system of panels and Zep mounting gear in the third quarter of this year. Trina joins six other solar panel makers and integrators to incorporate Zep’s technology into their module and system offerings, said Daniel Flanigan, vice president of marketing at Zep. Other customers include Canadian Solar, ET Solar, CentroSolar, Up Solar and Eco-Kinetics.
The deal with Trina is a nice validation for Zep, which was founded in 2009 to simplify installation equipment and save time and money. Key parts of its offering, aside from the Zep Groove frame, include the interlocks to string together and automatically ground the panels, wire clips for anchoring the cable wires, and what it calls the “array skirt” that gives the front and public-facing part of the system a more polished look.
The company, based in San Rafael, CA, has launched racks for slanted and flat rooftops for residential and commercial market, and is looking for opportunities to do utility-scale projects. The plan isn’t to launch gear for utility-scale installations but to work with equipment suppliers and contractors to customize mounting hardware for specific projects, Flanigan said.
The company contracts with manufacturers in the United States to make its products, and has shipped 8 megawatts worth of prooduct since early 2010, Flanigan said. Most of the installations are in the residential rooftop space. Zep raised an A round of $7.4 million last year from investors including Aquillian Investments.
Mounting systems aren’t the most high tech part of a PV system, but they are gettingmore attention from installers, contractors and investors for their part in driving down costs of installations and solar electricity pricing. The solar industry is in a race to prove that solar electricity is not only a more eco-friendly energy but also can be affordable soon.
There is no agreement on how soon solar can be as cheap as power from power plants that run on coal and natural gas, but the Obama administration has set a goal of driving down the installation cost to $1 per watt for utility-scale projects by the end of this decade. The administration has asked Congress to boost funding for the U.S. Department of Energy for the 2012 fiscal year to help achieve this goal.
A mounting system usually makes up about 10 percent of the materials in a PV project, Juan Suarez, senior director of engineering and program management at Unirac, told me recently. Roughly 40 percent of the labor in a project goes to setting up the mounting gear and wiring. Overall a mounting system makes up about 25 percent of the total installation cost, he added. Unirac, based in New Mexico, also develops mounting systems and was bought by the Hilti Group, a construction tool supplier in Europe, last year.
Using Zep’s equipment can decrease the time to install a solar array itself (not counting inverters and other installation parts outside of the array) by five times, Flanigan said. Overall, the design cuts total installation time by half, he added.
Trina Solar also joins a club of solar panel makers who believe they could better market their core products by marketing them with equipment that makes up a solar power system. Suntech Power, for example, has done this by teaming up with microinverter maker, Enphase Energy. First Solar recently bought RayTracker and presumably will offer systems that make use of RayTracker’s single-axis tracking equipment. Until now, First Solar has been mounting its thin films in fixed-tilt gear.
Canadian Solar also sees an increasing demand from customers, particularly those in Canada and Japan, to get the key pieces of equipment for a power project from one source.
“They want to see a total hardware solution, so we provide modules, source components and do system designs,” said Shawn Qu, CEO of Canadian Solar, in an interview earlier this week.
Source: Renewable EnergyWorld.com
Trina is incorporating Zep’s framing design (Zep Groove) into its solar panel production, and it plans to launch not only the panels but also a system of panels and Zep mounting gear in the third quarter of this year. Trina joins six other solar panel makers and integrators to incorporate Zep’s technology into their module and system offerings, said Daniel Flanigan, vice president of marketing at Zep. Other customers include Canadian Solar, ET Solar, CentroSolar, Up Solar and Eco-Kinetics.
The deal with Trina is a nice validation for Zep, which was founded in 2009 to simplify installation equipment and save time and money. Key parts of its offering, aside from the Zep Groove frame, include the interlocks to string together and automatically ground the panels, wire clips for anchoring the cable wires, and what it calls the “array skirt” that gives the front and public-facing part of the system a more polished look.
The company, based in San Rafael, CA, has launched racks for slanted and flat rooftops for residential and commercial market, and is looking for opportunities to do utility-scale projects. The plan isn’t to launch gear for utility-scale installations but to work with equipment suppliers and contractors to customize mounting hardware for specific projects, Flanigan said.
The company contracts with manufacturers in the United States to make its products, and has shipped 8 megawatts worth of prooduct since early 2010, Flanigan said. Most of the installations are in the residential rooftop space. Zep raised an A round of $7.4 million last year from investors including Aquillian Investments.
Mounting systems aren’t the most high tech part of a PV system, but they are gettingmore attention from installers, contractors and investors for their part in driving down costs of installations and solar electricity pricing. The solar industry is in a race to prove that solar electricity is not only a more eco-friendly energy but also can be affordable soon.
There is no agreement on how soon solar can be as cheap as power from power plants that run on coal and natural gas, but the Obama administration has set a goal of driving down the installation cost to $1 per watt for utility-scale projects by the end of this decade. The administration has asked Congress to boost funding for the U.S. Department of Energy for the 2012 fiscal year to help achieve this goal.
A mounting system usually makes up about 10 percent of the materials in a PV project, Juan Suarez, senior director of engineering and program management at Unirac, told me recently. Roughly 40 percent of the labor in a project goes to setting up the mounting gear and wiring. Overall a mounting system makes up about 25 percent of the total installation cost, he added. Unirac, based in New Mexico, also develops mounting systems and was bought by the Hilti Group, a construction tool supplier in Europe, last year.
Using Zep’s equipment can decrease the time to install a solar array itself (not counting inverters and other installation parts outside of the array) by five times, Flanigan said. Overall, the design cuts total installation time by half, he added.
Trina Solar also joins a club of solar panel makers who believe they could better market their core products by marketing them with equipment that makes up a solar power system. Suntech Power, for example, has done this by teaming up with microinverter maker, Enphase Energy. First Solar recently bought RayTracker and presumably will offer systems that make use of RayTracker’s single-axis tracking equipment. Until now, First Solar has been mounting its thin films in fixed-tilt gear.
Canadian Solar also sees an increasing demand from customers, particularly those in Canada and Japan, to get the key pieces of equipment for a power project from one source.
“They want to see a total hardware solution, so we provide modules, source components and do system designs,” said Shawn Qu, CEO of Canadian Solar, in an interview earlier this week.
Source: Renewable EnergyWorld.com
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
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
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
Sunday, August 8, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Quick Changing Market
Five Years ago ... these were the top five solar cell fabricators:
Today the top five companies are:
Only two firms ... Sharp and Q-cells were able to stay in the top 5, the other three firms are virtually newcomers.
On average, U.S. corporations lose half of their customers every five years, half of their employees every four years, and half of their investors every year, according to Frederick Reichheld, author of The Loyalty Effect.
Buyers want value ... high efficiency / low cost. Those that can supply it prosper, those that do not decline. This is likely what we can look forward to in the coming years as the market continues to expand and new technologies are brought forward.
Source: Renewable Energy World
Today the top five companies are:
Only two firms ... Sharp and Q-cells were able to stay in the top 5, the other three firms are virtually newcomers.
On average, U.S. corporations lose half of their customers every five years, half of their employees every four years, and half of their investors every year, according to Frederick Reichheld, author of The Loyalty Effect.
Buyers want value ... high efficiency / low cost. Those that can supply it prosper, those that do not decline. This is likely what we can look forward to in the coming years as the market continues to expand and new technologies are brought forward.
Source: Renewable Energy World
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
SunPower Arranges $75 Million Loan Commitment from IFC
SunPower Corp. has secured a $75 million loan commitment from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group. The company's subsidiary, SunPower Philippines Manufacturing Ltd. (SPML), is partnering with IFC to finance SPML's operations in the Philippines.
"SunPower's partnership with IFC will enable us to drive further improvements to our manufacturing processes, which will allow us to continue delivery of the highest-efficiency solar cells to the global market," states Dennis Arriola, SunPower's executive vice president and chief financial officer. "We have been working closely with IFC for more than a year to secure this financing, and we hope to identify additional opportunities in the future."
Under the terms of the loan commitment, SPML can draw up to $75 million over the next two years. The loan must be repaid seven years from the draw-down date.
SOURCE: Solar Industry Magazine
"SunPower's partnership with IFC will enable us to drive further improvements to our manufacturing processes, which will allow us to continue delivery of the highest-efficiency solar cells to the global market," states Dennis Arriola, SunPower's executive vice president and chief financial officer. "We have been working closely with IFC for more than a year to secure this financing, and we hope to identify additional opportunities in the future."
Under the terms of the loan commitment, SPML can draw up to $75 million over the next two years. The loan must be repaid seven years from the draw-down date.
SOURCE: Solar Industry Magazine
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