Solar Cells Info

News from LexisNexis / Asia Pulse, April 23, 2008
Source: Semiconductor.net
http://www.semiconductor.net/articleXml/LN780233191.html

Amid a shortage of silicon supplies, Sanyo Electric Co. (TSE:6764) intends to begin mass-producing thin-film solar cells by 2010, two years earlier than initially planned.   Compared with polysilicon cells, thin-film offerings use around one-100th the amount of silicon. And although they cost roughly half as much to make, thin-film solar cells are less efficient at converting sunlight into electricity. Using new technology, the products to be mass-produced will have their power generation efficiency boosted from the current norm of 10 per cent to as much as 14 per cent, the highest level yet.

To move up its production schedule, the consumer electronics maker will beef up its R&D efforts. By year’s end, Sanyo will increase the number of researchers working at its cell center development facility in Gifu Prefecture from 30 to 50, and to 100 or so within a few years. Development costs are seen hitting 7.5 billion yen ($73US million) over the next three years, up 50 per cent from earlier plans.

Sanyo is considering whether to make the cells at its Gifu or Osaka Prefecture plant, or build an assembly line at its Shimane Prefecture facility .  Because solar cells do not emit carbon dioxide when generating electricity, they are expected to be a promising technology for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Demand for them is surging in Germany, Spain and other parts of Europe. Worldwide demand for the cells, which stood at 2.5 gigawatts last year, is projected to balloon to 15gw in 2012.