Solar Cells Info

Nuying Huang, Taipei; Esther Lam
Source: DIGITIMES, 19 October 2007
http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20071019PD205.html

Japan-based thin-film solar module maker Kaneka believes that fellow industry players can hardly survive in the photovoltaic(PV) race with crystalline silicon-based solar applications from competitors if they cannot achieve a power conversion rate of 12-13%, said company solar energy division executive officer Mikio Hatta during the recent 2007 PV Forum & Exhibition Taiwan.  Although being in the thin-film solar module business for about a decade, Kaneka has been cautious about the market trend as thin-film based materials are drawing more attention in the PV industry. With more industry players tapping thin-film solar cell production in a rapidly growing PV market, Hatta said the market is still in a state of start up and it is hard to forecast when a meaningful take off will be seen.

What is for sure though, is there are many sales and promotion challenges in the thin-film solar cell market, Hatta said. He estimated that this segment accounts about one-fifth of the entire PV market currently. Assuming there will be a 10 billion watt equivalent capacity for the entire PV industry in 2010 with two billion being for thin-film solar cell production, Hatta expressed concern about how the market can consume this estimated capacity.

Kaneka started selling hybrid thin-film solar cells (with a new transparent intermediate layer sandwiched between the existing double layers of amorphous silicon and thin-film polysilicon) that deliver a power conversion rate of 12%, Hatta said. Out of the planned 70 peak megawatt (MWp) capacity in 2008, he updated that the company will see 40MWp from this sort of hybrid solar cells and the remainder coming from other non-crystalline solar cells, which deliver a power conversion rate of 8%. He reiterated that only those thin-film solar cells that have a power conversion rate reaching 12% can compete with conventional crystalline silicon-based products.

Some analysts who attended the forum agreed with Hatta’s opinion, noting that Sharp, which plans for one peak gigawatt (GWp) thin-film solar cell capacity in 2010, will grab half of the total market share. Other leading players in this field such as Kaneka, United Solar Ovonic (Uni-Solar), as well as the aggressive deployment by new entrants and existing players in the crystalline silicon-based segment, highlights the significance to enhance power efficiency.