Light of the world—Building success as the solar industry goes global
Light of the world
Building success as the solar industry goes global
by Darren Brown, DEK, Weymouth, United Kingdom
introduction:
terms of market share. Companies can then
Growing pressure to utilise
capacity and opportunity
‘pay as they grow’ by buying-in extra capacity.
renewable energy sources
Demand for solar panels is greater than
This approach also simplifies planning for
is driving up sales of solar
current manufacturing capacity. There are
start-ups.
several reasons for this. Effective government
panels globally. Under these
In fact, the barriers to new companies
incentives on renewable energies are
conditions, current suppliers
entering this market are currently low. Solar,
encouraging individual homeowners to
or photovoltaic (PV), cell technology is
can achieve rapid growth,
install generating equipment capable of
relatively straightforward and easy to
and new manufacturers can
fulfilling a proportion of the total domestic
understand and produce, and the equip-
seize the opportunity to enter requirement. Another factor is the trend for
ment can be planned and installed almost as
the market. Production equip-
high-profile businesses to be seen to commit
a shrink-wrapped production line meeting
ment and techniques are also
to sustainable practices. Premises that can
the required capacity. This represents an
changing, to deliver higher
support large solar-cell installations, such as
attractive opportunity for many types of
performing products at high
a supermarket site, enable these companies
manufacturing businesses with sufficient
quality and in high volumes.
to derive an impressive percentage of
real-estate to install a production line and
their energy requirements from renewable
suitable management and logistical compe-
sources.
tencies.
Production capacity is increasing,
Manufacturers in emerging economies
Keywords: Thin-Film PV
however. Some new projects recently reported
are particularly well placed to benefit. Ca-
by Semiconductor International include the
Cells, High-Volume
pacity is growing faster in India and China
expansion of the QS Solar plant in Shanghai
Production, Screen Printing
than in other areas. Germany, for example,
to 75MW, and a new plant of 64MW capacity
has the highest total PV manufacturing
to be built by Schott Solar in Santa Fe,
capacity, but growth is slower than in Asia.
New Mexico. Since global demand for solar
Currently there are an estimated 50+ com-
panels is calculated in watts, production
panies producing PV cells in China alone,
planners tend to size a plant to match
including indigenous businesses and foreign
their ambitions in
investors.
pV manufacturing techniques
There are currently two manufacturing
technologies for PV cells. Those fabricated
on bulk silicon substrates currently account
for more than 90% of global production.
These are built up using thick-film production
techniques, by depositing an array of fine
current-collector fingers on the topside
of the substrate, applying an aluminium
metallisation layer to the bottom side, and
then creating a series of wider bus bars for
electrical interconnection purposes. The bus
bars are usually deposited as a silver-based
compound around 2 mm wide. In this way,
the PV cell is built up through a sequence
of processes, each of which is relatively easy
to implement and control using the latest
equipment now emerging to service the
growing number of PV cell producers.
Thin-film PV technology is a newer
alternative, which not only allows cell arrays
to be fabricated on silicon but also enables
substrates such as flexible polymer, steel
or glass sheets to be used. This will allow
energy harvesting capabilities to be embedded
directly in windows and other panels for of-
20 – Global Solar Technology – September/October 2008 www.globalsolartechnology.com
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