GE says that a full-size cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar panel developed by the company has been independently certified by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory as 12.8% efficient (aperture area efficiency), a CdTe efficiency record.
GE intends to manufacture the solar panels at a 400 MW U.S. factory that, according to the company, will be larger than any existing module factory in the country. These efforts will be complemented by the recently announced acquisition of power-conversion company Converteam.
In addition, GE has completed its acquisition of PrimeStar Solar Inc., a thin-film solar technology company in which GE has held a majority equity stake since 2008. The record-setting module was produced on the PrimeStar 30 MW manufacturing line in Arvada, Colo.
GE has also announced more than 100 MW of new commercial agreements for solar thin-film products, including panels, inverters and total solar power plants. The largest agreement is with NextEra Energy for 60 MW of modules. GE also has signed a 20 MW solar agreement with Chicago-based Invenergy for the supply of modules and GE Brilliance inverters.
SOURCE: GE
Showing posts with label Thin Film solar panels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thin Film solar panels. Show all posts
Monday, April 11, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Why I Believe in Thin Film
By Dana Blankenhorn (source: Renewable Energy World.com)
When most people think of solar energy, they see flat panels on a roof.
They don't think about thin film. They don't see it.
This is one of the many advantages ofCIGS and other thin film solar technologies. So what if its efficiency is half that of a panel? It conforms to the shape of the place where it lays.
Thin film can also be productized in ways no panel can. It can be turned into somethingretailers can sell or bloggers will drool over. Try doing that with a panel.
With the exception of the 800-pound Gorilla First Solar, it's true that we're still measuring the annual supply from these manufacturers in megawatts, figures utility companies can't (and often don't want to) hear, except as window-dressing or a source of subsidies. But changing that equation is as simple as getting the right product into mass production. (Skeptics should listen again to the words of former DEC CEO Ken Olsen. "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.")
Personally I think I've seen the future and it's thin.
Copper indium gallium (di)selenide is also not the only possible formula for a thin film. Sharp is looking at amorphous silicon, despite Applied Materials' failure with it. Maybe they will succeed, and maybe they'll fail too. The search for new materials will go on. (Like the man told Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, "One word. Plastics.")
There is a ton of competition in this space. Analysts at Greentech Media recently wrote a list of just CIGS thin film companies for a story on one of them. Want to hear it? Solar Frontier, Qcells, Solyndra, SoloPower, MiaSolé, Wuerth Solar, Stion, GSP, Nanosolar. They can't all be wrong, can they?
And is that an exhaustive list? Far from it. Venture capitalists are funding more all the time, often on the promise of greater efficiency. While analysts at Greentech Media are very positive about companies like AQT Solar that can get into production fast and cheap, or SoloPower, with its claims of UL Labs approval, it's clear to me that this is the first mile of a corporate marathon.
Put it this way. How many PC makers from the late 1970s can you name? (Other than Apple.) In terms of this market, I don't even think we're at 1977 yet.
There are just so many directions in which improvement can happen with thin films. Efficiency, production cost, durability, materials cost, etc. It's true that the total power being supplied by CIGS right now looks pathetic next to standard panels, but the advantages are just too obvious.
That's why companies like Dow Chemical and (now) Intel are putting cash into the space. Dow likes the idea of solar systems that go on with the roof, that in fact are the roof. Intel likes Sulfurcell, a German company that claims (as others do) that thin films can be as efficient as panels.
The way to look at this is not through the eyes of current production, or short-term profits. It's about the technologies behind the curtain, the new materials and techniques that can get that to market. A good venture capitalist will invest in 10 plays knowing only three will ever bring him any return, but in hopes that 1 of those three will be huge. That's the right attitude to have.
What does it mean when every roof, every wall, every tent and bleach blanket can be delivering solar power to its owner? Remember, electronics and many electrical devices are requiring less-and-less power every year.
More to the point, what does it mean to an industry that depends on long-term contracts for construction of panel systems if the wall can deliver just as much power for the cost of wallpapering? Or painting? That's a silly question today, but one that the people in this business should probably start thinking about.
When most people think of solar energy, they see flat panels on a roof.
They don't think about thin film. They don't see it.
This is one of the many advantages ofCIGS and other thin film solar technologies. So what if its efficiency is half that of a panel? It conforms to the shape of the place where it lays.
Thin film can also be productized in ways no panel can. It can be turned into somethingretailers can sell or bloggers will drool over. Try doing that with a panel.
With the exception of the 800-pound Gorilla First Solar, it's true that we're still measuring the annual supply from these manufacturers in megawatts, figures utility companies can't (and often don't want to) hear, except as window-dressing or a source of subsidies. But changing that equation is as simple as getting the right product into mass production. (Skeptics should listen again to the words of former DEC CEO Ken Olsen. "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.")
Personally I think I've seen the future and it's thin.
Copper indium gallium (di)selenide is also not the only possible formula for a thin film. Sharp is looking at amorphous silicon, despite Applied Materials' failure with it. Maybe they will succeed, and maybe they'll fail too. The search for new materials will go on. (Like the man told Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, "One word. Plastics.")
There is a ton of competition in this space. Analysts at Greentech Media recently wrote a list of just CIGS thin film companies for a story on one of them. Want to hear it? Solar Frontier, Qcells, Solyndra, SoloPower, MiaSolé, Wuerth Solar, Stion, GSP, Nanosolar. They can't all be wrong, can they?
And is that an exhaustive list? Far from it. Venture capitalists are funding more all the time, often on the promise of greater efficiency. While analysts at Greentech Media are very positive about companies like AQT Solar that can get into production fast and cheap, or SoloPower, with its claims of UL Labs approval, it's clear to me that this is the first mile of a corporate marathon.
Put it this way. How many PC makers from the late 1970s can you name? (Other than Apple.) In terms of this market, I don't even think we're at 1977 yet.
There are just so many directions in which improvement can happen with thin films. Efficiency, production cost, durability, materials cost, etc. It's true that the total power being supplied by CIGS right now looks pathetic next to standard panels, but the advantages are just too obvious.
That's why companies like Dow Chemical and (now) Intel are putting cash into the space. Dow likes the idea of solar systems that go on with the roof, that in fact are the roof. Intel likes Sulfurcell, a German company that claims (as others do) that thin films can be as efficient as panels.
The way to look at this is not through the eyes of current production, or short-term profits. It's about the technologies behind the curtain, the new materials and techniques that can get that to market. A good venture capitalist will invest in 10 plays knowing only three will ever bring him any return, but in hopes that 1 of those three will be huge. That's the right attitude to have.
What does it mean when every roof, every wall, every tent and bleach blanket can be delivering solar power to its owner? Remember, electronics and many electrical devices are requiring less-and-less power every year.
More to the point, what does it mean to an industry that depends on long-term contracts for construction of panel systems if the wall can deliver just as much power for the cost of wallpapering? Or painting? That's a silly question today, but one that the people in this business should probably start thinking about.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Thin-Film PV Materials To Reach $5.9B In 2016
Despite the end of the silicon shortage and ongoing economic woes, the thin-film PV (TFPV) materials markets will generate $5.9 billion in 2016 compared to $2.1 billion in 2011, according to a new report from NanoMarkets.
The report includes its latest projections on material sales for thin-film silicon (TF Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) PV. NanoMarkets believes that, despite its maturity, TF Si PV will retain its competitiveness as this technology shifts toward using tandem cells using microcrystalline silicon. Key beneficiaries of this shift will be silane suppliers. Revenues from TF Si PV absorber materials will reach approximately $975 million by 2016.
However, by 2016, the largest segment of the TFPV material sector will be CdTe absorber materials, which, by then, will reach $1.6 billion. This represents an important opportunity for suppliers of CdTe materials to qualify as a supplier to the dominant CdTe panel maker, First Solar, which is increasingly in need of more materials sources, the report says. The growing use of tellurium also presents an opportunity for companies in the copper- and lead-refining industries, because tellurium is primarily a byproduct of refining these ores.
Despite the disappointments of the past, NanoMarkets believes product and manufacturing announcements over the past year have begun to vindicate the CIGS story. Dow's CIGS-based building-integrated PV product and TSMC's entry into the CIGS area promise a better future for CIGS. As a result, absorber materials sold into this space are expected to reach approximately $610 million by 2016.
NanoMarkets also predicts success for CIGS electrodeposition, which the company says is well matched to improve the cost performance of CIGS in a low-demand economy.
SOURCE: NanoMarkets
The report includes its latest projections on material sales for thin-film silicon (TF Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) PV. NanoMarkets believes that, despite its maturity, TF Si PV will retain its competitiveness as this technology shifts toward using tandem cells using microcrystalline silicon. Key beneficiaries of this shift will be silane suppliers. Revenues from TF Si PV absorber materials will reach approximately $975 million by 2016.
However, by 2016, the largest segment of the TFPV material sector will be CdTe absorber materials, which, by then, will reach $1.6 billion. This represents an important opportunity for suppliers of CdTe materials to qualify as a supplier to the dominant CdTe panel maker, First Solar, which is increasingly in need of more materials sources, the report says. The growing use of tellurium also presents an opportunity for companies in the copper- and lead-refining industries, because tellurium is primarily a byproduct of refining these ores.
Despite the disappointments of the past, NanoMarkets believes product and manufacturing announcements over the past year have begun to vindicate the CIGS story. Dow's CIGS-based building-integrated PV product and TSMC's entry into the CIGS area promise a better future for CIGS. As a result, absorber materials sold into this space are expected to reach approximately $610 million by 2016.
NanoMarkets also predicts success for CIGS electrodeposition, which the company says is well matched to improve the cost performance of CIGS in a low-demand economy.
SOURCE: NanoMarkets
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sharp Starts Building Thin Film Modules in Germany
Hamburg, Germany:
For the first time, Sharp Energy Solutions Europe is building solar power plants for energy providers in Germany. It is a project in cooperation with EnBW Erneuerbare Energien GmbH on the one hand and a project for the Pfalzwerke Aktiengesellschaft through the partner Eurosol on the other.
With an investment of around € 6 million in 2009, both megawatt projects promise good yields. Sharp’s silicon-based thin-film technology is a central success factor for the profitability of photovoltaics.
EnBW is entering into the solar energy market as an investor with the Leibertingen solar park in Baden-Württemberg and makes use of Sharp‘s solar technology in the process. The same goes for Pfalzwerke Aktiengesellschaft, with its photovoltaic plant in Höheinöd, Rhineland-Palatinate.
“Together with our partners, we could realise a showcase project which will act as a beacon even beyond the boundaries of the regions”, says Peter Thiele, Executive Vice President of Sharp Energy Solution Europe. “Both solar power plants clearly demonstrate how cost-effective photovoltaics can be, especially the thin-film technology. They make it clear that photovoltaics is a secure, profitable and environmentally friendly energy technology, thus making it a lucrative future model for energy providers.”
Roughly 17,000 Sharp thin-film modules produce environmentally friendly electricity in each of the solar power plants.
Second-generation microamorphous thin-film modules are used in both power plants: the 1.42 square metre silicon-based modules generate a high yield and are well-suited to sophisticated system designs thanks to their low output voltage of 60 volts.
“We put the world’s largest thin film cell factory online in March 2010 in Sakai, thus increasing our production capacity to its current 870 megawatts,” reports Peter Thiele. The technology enterprise also produces LCD panels in addition to solar cells here. The similar production processes secure important competitive advantages for Sharp:
"In Sakai, we can produce the raw material-saving thin film modules highly efficiently and cost-consciously”, Peter Thiele continues.
In the future, Sharp intends to produce thin film cells in Sakai in a microamorphous triple-junction structure and expand the production capacity to up to 1,000 megawatts.
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