Thin Film Business

Photovoltaics Thin Film Business

is exciting

OptiSolar is currently constructing a large commercial-scale amorphous silicon solar thin- irst of all, Sempra Generation, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, in December film project in Sarnia, Ontario. Photo: OptiSolar completed a 10 MW thin-film plant in Nevada – which is the largest thin-film Finstallation in North America today. The company says it believes the project – which uses thin film manufactured by First Solar of Arizona – produces the least expensive solar energy in the world. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) of California has signed a 20-year contract for the output of the plant. What’s more, even bigger plants are on the horizon. For example, OptiSolar, based in California, has proposed the 550 MW Topaz Solar Farm project in California, which would use relatively low-cost, thin-film PV panels, according to the company. PG&E has If there’s one word solar industry members signed a contract to purchase the output of the plant, which would begin power delivery in 2011 use to describe the state of the thin-film and be fully operational by 2013. business today in the USA, it’s “exciting”. Growing market share

Thin-film technologies, which reduce the amount of light-absorbing material used to manufacture a solar cell, are grabbing up some of the market shares formerly taken by the conventional crystalline silicon panels. Because thin-film photovoltaics canproduce electricity at lower prices than crystalline silicon and don’t use much of the shortage- plagued silicon, they’re gaining in popularity and are seen as more attractive under certain circumstances. Because they’re less efficient, they’re more appealing when there’s enough land available to build larger plants. However, where land or roof space is scarce, the higher-efficiency crystalline will be cheaper, notes Jerry Caldwell, senior project engineer for Recurrent Energy in California. “This is a very exciting time for the thin-film sector with as much financial backing as it’s gotten in the last few years. There

182 Sun & Wind Energy 5/2009 elero_Solar_74x303_GB_140409:Layout 1 14.04.2009

Linear Actuator is a plethora of new companies coming out with new variations on an assortment of Aton technologies”, he says. Thin-film technology has benefited in recent years from the research and development that’s gone into flat-screen televisions, says Tom M. Djokovich, President and Chief Executive Officer of XsunX, an Oregon-based company that plans to build and op- erate a thin-film manufacturing plant with more than 100 MW of manufacturing capac- ity. “The same manufacturing techniques you use to make flat panel TVs you use to make different layers of amorphous silicon solar cells”, he explains. “All this technology we developed to make bigger TVs can also make bigger, cheaper amorphous silicon Are you looking for a clever yet solar cells.” economical solution for your sun- In general thin film has a number of advantages over other solar technologies, says tracking solar system? Michael Fritsch, President and Chief Operating Officer of Confoe, Inc. in Texas, which improves operational performance, factory output, and supply chain management for Then choose the “trend-setting” actuator renewable energy companies. Thin-film PV modules have the lowest manufacturing generation Aton- developed especially for cost today and show the best potential for improving costs throughout the value chain, tracking systems! he notes. These technologies use fewer materials and aren’t affected by the current silicon supply shortage. They also are better suited to building-integrated PV systems. Most Important Characteristics: Says Alan Bernheimer, Vice President of Corporate Communications for OptiSolar, • Applicable for azimuth direction angles “Doing thin film on a large scale is really what has begun to make it effective.” and elevation Some say that thin-film’s market share will eventually catch up to crystalline sili- • Extremely high static hold-loads con’s. Thin film represented about 10 % of the PV market in 2008 and is expected to in- • Flexible integration into new and crease to 28 % in 2012, mentions Fritsch. existing structures Best choice in some cases • Freely programmable electronic or mechanical limit switch “Thin film will lower the cost of solar power in some applications – especially large- • Integrated encoder scale arrays sited in warm climates”, says Paul Wormser, Senior Director of Engineer- • Completely maintenance free ing and Product Development, Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group. “There’s a tremen- • Corrosion resistance dous amount of anticipation about thin film because we’ve been striving for genuine • High reliability grid parity, and thin film moves us toward that goal”, he adds. Helping move the industry toward the low-cost goal is the 10 MW Sempra plant. Sempra Energy Spokesman Art Contact us! Larson says the company believes its 10 MW El Dorado Energy Solar project produces the cheapest solar energy in the world. The low cost is not only due to the thin film advantage; it’s due also to the fact that the plant was built in an area where there is al- Following the sun – ready an existing natural gas fired plant. “The infrastructure was there for connection a step ahead to the grid. That’s a crucial component of building renewable or any power”, he explains. A number of factors gave rise to the construction of the largest, lowest-cost solar of the rest! facility in North America, he adds. “Obviously public policy and concerns about climate change have all played a role”, he says, adding that Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) – especially in California and the Southwest – help boost the market for thin-film solar and other types of renewable energy. In constructing the plant, cost was not the only concern of manufacturer First Solar, says Lisa Krueger, First Solar’s Vice President of Sustainable Development. The company’s thin film has the lowest carbon footprint and the shortest energy payback of PV technologies. “Obviously, having cost-effective solar technology is a great way to affect climate change. We also embrace product life-cycle management”, she states. The company has developed recycling technology to recover semiconductor material, she says. “We purify and compound it for use in new modules. We recover glass and the semiconductor material.” Thin-film: a threesome

Sempra’s El Dorado Solar Project utilizes one of three types of thin-film technology – cadmium telluride. First Solar is able to use the technology to achieve an average manufacturing cost per watt lower than crystalline silicon’s, says Fritsch. Cadmium telluride technologies have produced panels with efficiencies in the 6 % to 10 % range, with a record efficiency of 16.5 %, he says. But cadmium telluride carries some environmen- tal concerns so manufacturers must implement recycle and reclaim programmes. The most well-developed of the three thin-film technologies is amorphous silicon. One of amorphous silicon’s advantages: it doesn’t use any hard-to-find or difficult com- pounds, says Bernheimer. “It uses 1 % of silicon polycrystalline and doesn’t use any Stand 370 metal”, he adds. It’s also possible to replicate amorphous silicon on different Hall B5 |

www.elero-solar.de Sun & Wind Energy 5/2009 Photovoltaics Thin Film

substrates, including steel and glass, says Georgina Benedetti, a research analyst in the energy and power systems division of Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm with of- fices all over the world. Amorphous silicon technology has produced production panels with efficiencies in the 5 % to 10 % range and a record efficiency of 13 %, mentions Fritsch. A third type of thin-film technology is copper indium gallium sele- nide (CIGS). CIGS may hold the most promise for low-cost manufacturing, Largest thin-film PV modules in the industry, Gen 8.5 says Fritsch. “The major players use electronic print- by Signet Solar, on display at Intersolar conference ing processes to create the solar cells. This gives the 2008, Germany. Photos (2): Signet potential for very low cost/high-throughput manufacturing which does not require high vacuum or high temperature (meaning relatively low capital costs for Contreras, group leader for the NREL CIGS group. equipment)”, he says. This technology is also well “This efficiency is very comparable now with the effi- suited for producing building-integrated PV – where ciency of the most common solar cell - the polycrys- the PV panel is part of the building material itself. talline solar cell, with 20.3 % efficiency.” CIGS technology has produced production panels with efficiencies in the 10 % to 14 % range and a Cost per watt matters record efficiency of 19.9 %, he says. The US Depart- ment of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Labora- The 550 MW plant planned by OptiSolar would em- tory (NREL) recently created a thin-film CIGS solar cell ploy the more widely used amorphous silicon tech- that reached 19.9 % efficiency in testing at the lab, nology. “This involves a lot less silicon than a poly- according to NREL. “This is the very first 20 % effi- crystalline solar cell and is what has been around a ciency solar thin-film ever made”, says Miguel lot longer. We only use 1 % of the amount of silicon”,

Start of production of the Gen 8.5, Signet Solar‘s technology which lowers the cost of photovoltaic modules by combining proven silicon thin-film technology with very large area manufacturing and an industry standard equipment set.

184 Sun & Wind Energy 5/2009

Photovoltaics Thin Film

izing on a large scale. What Sharp does is build a sandwich, he explains. “The first piece of bread is glass; the peanut butter and jelly is thin film and the next piece is a weather barrier.” “With the thin film of today, the efficiency is way up and the stability is ter- rific. You want to maximize the economic situation and technical situation of how many layers. We build two layers now.” Sharp will be building three layer thin film in the future, he says. The different layers capture different portions of the light spectrum, allowing for more light to be captured from the sun, he explains. Sharp’s two-layer technology consists of two very thin film layers of silicon. One is amorphous and the other is microcrystalline silicon, says Wormser. The additional layers also make the thin- film cells last longer, he says. “The thin film of old was mostly one layer, amorphous, low performing. There were some companies that used multiple layers of thin-film amorphous silicon. It had better performance but was not competitive with crystalline. Now that there is a technological and manufacturing ability to create microcrystalline layers, you get the best of both worlds. You get the best use of materials because it’s so thin. You get the ease of manufacturing and pretty good efficiency and stability that you get from crystalline. It’s the idea of marrying amorphous silicon with microcrystalline.” Another sandwich solution

XsunX also uses the two-layer approach, says Djokovich. “We create sandwiches of different solar cells, each tuned to capture a certain spectrum of sunlight”, he says. “The top will be tuned to capture reds and blues, and the lower cell will be tuned to Solar lens manufactured by capture more of the green spectrum.” The company is 3M used to concentrate solar says Bernheimer. “We put a thin film of silicon on the building a factory in Oregon that is expected to start radiation back of a piece of glass, which we turn into solar cells. production in 2009. Photos (2): 3M It is a lot less expensive to manufacture because Like many of the thin-film companies, Oerlikon there’s less silicon and manufacturing is cheaper. The Solar also seeks to take advantage of the low cost of film is a lot like a silicon chip. We just deposit the thin thin film. But rather than producing modules, the film on glass.” And thin film offers another advantage company sells customers a complete manufacturing over crystalline solar cells, he adds. “Crystalline so- system that allows them to make modules and enter lar cells have a harder time following the sun and you the market quickly, says Christopher O’Brien, Head of need trackers. With thin film, you don’t need to track Market Development for North America. “Our core because it works at different angles.” He notes, how- competency is optimizing manufacturing equipment. ever, that because thin film is less efficient, more We develop a standard tool set that a number of cus- land is required. “Cost per watt is really what matters tomers can use to get into the market quickly. It’s a at the end of the day.” faster way to grow our business than to make panels Another amorphous silicon user is Sharp, which ourselves”, he says. “We don’t buy the glass or gases has announced that it will introduce “next-genera- and don’t hire workers. The factors that we can con- tion” thin-film solar cells in the US market in the near trol, we do guarantee”, he says. Oerlikon guarantees future. The cells will feature efficiency and longevity. customers the efficiency of the modules and the “With its thin-film solar product, Sharp will be capa- throughput of the plant. For single-layer modules, it ble of handling multi-megawatt, large-scale utility guarantees an efficiency of 7 %. Most single-junction projects that are best served by a thin-film solar solu- thin film has an efficiency of 5.5 % or 6 %, he adds. tion, and the company is already working with pro- The cost of the electricity produced by Oerlikon sys- spective US customers in preparation for these large- tems, he says, is about half the cost of conventional scale deployments”, the company says in a press re- crystalline silicon. The estimated production cost lease. Sharp’s Wormser says that the development of using the system is about US$ 1.20 per watt, he technology allowing for more than one layer of thin explains. That’s similar to the cost of electricity pro- film made this type of thin film worthy of commercial- duced by First Solar which announced in February

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that it has cut production Solar panel from 3M with projects like this”, he costs to 98 cents per watt. says. Low cost is indeed “Expect the cost to de- what prompts PG&E to sign crease to under US$ 1 per contracts with renewable watt or as low as 70 cents energy developers, says per watt in the future”, PG&E Spokeswoman O’Brien says. The goal is to Jennifer Zerwer. Califor- see energy generated on nia’s RPS calls for the com- Oerlikon’s equipment drop pany to ensure 20 % of its enough so that it’s at or be- power comes from renew low the conventional cost able sources by 2010. The of power, he states. Sempra plant is PG&E’s first project in photovolta- Cost-competitive ics to come online. “The ness is near advantage of thin film: it’s an attractive technology. And that time is only a few Like other solar, it’s avail years away, says Bern able when we need it most heimer. “We are already during peak energy de- cost-competitive with oth- mands on hot summer er renewable energies. We days. It’s modular in nature are just a few years away and easy to set up”, Zerwer from being cost-effective says. But there’s yet anoth- with fossil fuel plants. er reason the thin film mar- These solar plants have a ket is growing – and it’s not lifetime of 20 to 30 years, about silicon shortages, so they will be cost com- suggests Fritsch. “I think petitive within their life- the more compelling driver time with fossil fuels. This is that there are a lot of dif- is why PG&E is signing on ferent ways to ‘skin the thin-film cat.’ There are a lot of different technology approaches that could pay off big. You also have the migration of talent from semiconductor to PV, which puts a lot of engineer brainpower and prowess on the thin-film technology side of things”, he says. Industry sources expect that they’ll soon see more incentives – and more technological develop- ments – that will help boost the market even further. Right now the industry is seeing a downturn related to the US recession. “We’re in a short blip now because of the credit crunch”, says Djokovich. But with the Obama administration, that’s expected to change. “With the Obama administration, all we see right now is optimism”, he states. “The realities are, if they do what they claim they’re going to do – build a new energy economy – wind and solar will be an important part of that. And that’s a good thing.” Says Tracy Anderson, Business Director of 3M’s Renewable En- ergy Division, which provides thin film and resins for PV: “It’s an exciting time. If projections hold true, we will all be very busy.” Lisa Cohn, Reid Smith

Further information: Sempra Generation: www.semprageneration.com OptiSolar: www.optisolar.com XsunX: www.xsunx.com Confoe, Inc.: www. confoe.com First Solar: www.firstsolar.com Sharp: www.sharpusa.com Oerlikon: www.oerlikon.com

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