September 2011 - I-Micronews

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 I S S U E N ° 1 3
E D I T O R I A L
Looking outside the mainstream at emerging
approaches to improve PV efficiency
Ramping low cost gigawatt-scale volume production has grown PV to a 40 GWp
business, according to Yole Développement fi gures, but the focus is now turning
to improving effi ciency to gain distinguishing competitive advantage in the crowded
market. In this issue of PVManufacturing we look at the state of some emerging approaches
to higher effi ciency solar installations, from High Concentration PV (HCPV) to developments
in inkjet and laser components for PV equipment.
…When overall enddemand
slows down,
these innovative
solutions can help
companies again
generate growth…
E V E N T S
HCPV remains a tiny business of small-scale installations to date, but the sector made a big
step up from mostly kilowatt-scale to multiple 1-2 megawatt-scale projects last year. The
leading companies now have 10MW-scale or larger projects in the pipeline. Moving to these
volumes means the HCPV sector will need to add volume automated production capacity and
fi gure out how to work more closely with its supply chain to optimize component design for
manufacturing—and that has potential to signifi cantly bring down costs.
Some components suppliers are also trying to jumpstart co-design to improve performance by
getting together to test, optimize and publish data on how different primary optics, secondary
optics and multijunction cells work together. Concentrator Optics, Isuzu Glass and AZUR
SPACE are testing results in mockup test HCPV modules made from their components, and
next plan to work with equipment suppliers to design production systems for the optimal
components.
The recent growth of HCPV installations in the US is partly because of the favorable economics
for the technology of high DNI desert climate conditions conveniently near big population
centers that particularly need power for air conditioning late on summer afternoons when
HCPV outperforms fl at plate PV, but it has also been spurred by government requirements
for aggressive new renewable energy portfolio standards for utilities, and by local efforts to
create manufacturing jobs. If the technology is going to compete more widely with fl at panel
PV, it will now need “muscle, manufacturing and money” as Amonix CTO and chairman
Vahan Garboushian says, to transition to a volume manufacturing business, and to keep
improving effi ciency and cost as fast as the fl at plate PV sector does, when that much larger
industry can pour vastly more resources into the effort.
• European PVSEC
September 5 to 9, 2011 – Hamburg, Germany
• Semicon Europa
October 11 to 13, 2011 – Dresden, Germany
• PV Japan
December 5 to 7, 2011 – Tokyo, Japan
PLATINUM PARTNERS:
The fl at panel PV side’s pursuit of higher effi ciencies of course continues to generate
innovative alternatives to the common processes. And when overall end-demand slows
down, these innovative solutions can help companies again generate growth. So we also take
a look in this issue at recent developments in laser and inkjet technology that have interesting
potential for new equipment processes to improve results. Controlled micromachining by
ESI’s tailored-pulse fi ber laser is showing some interesting results for precise scribing and
via drilling. Trident Solar is using its industrial stainless steel inkjet head that holds up to
aggressive chemicals to develop a process for printing etchant and dopant for selective
emitters by one pass of a single ink.
Arnaud Duteil
Market & Technology analyst
Yole Développement
duteil@yole.fr
P V M a n u f a c t u r i n g 3
For more information, please contact S. Leroy (leroy@yole.fr) or B. Stinson (stinson@i-micronews.com)