Oerlikon Solar, CMC to open turnkey 40-MW solar cell production plant
By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor.Electronic News, July 26, 2007
Source: EDN.com
http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6463348
Pfäffikon, Switzerland-based thin film production equipment supplier Oerlikon Solar reported today it has signed a contract with Taiwan-based CMC Magnetics Corp. (CMC) for the supply of a 40-MW peak (MWp) thin-film solar cell production plant. Last week, news reports stated that CMC, Taiwan’s top compact disk maker, plans to set up a new firm to make solar cells and will likely list the unit in 2009, as it seeks to tap growing demand for alternative energy sources. The first components from the plant are to be shipped to CMC this year with production planned for mid-2008.
With this order, Oerlikon Solar believes it is the world’s first company to supply a customer with a fully automated production line for thin-film solar modules with integrated test systems. Dr. Uwe Krüger, CEO of Oerlikon said this deal is only the beginning; as more and more companies adopt this much-needed technology, Oerlikon Solar will lead the surge by supporting customer needs and providing them with the most-advanced, cost-effective equipment to date.
The company said its high-tech production line allows the manufacture of silicon thin-film modules at an expected annual output of approximately 40-megawatts (MWp), with the turnkey end-to-end plant embracing the entire production process from glass purification to testing of the finished solar modules.
The contract with CMC also includes a service package for commissioning the process equipment and for getting production up to speed, and implementation of the entire metrology system for quality control, the “back end” of module production as well as Oerlikon’s recently-released TCO technology.
TCO layers play a central role in thin-film solar modules of silicon by creating electrical conductivity in order to transport the solar electricity with as little resistance as possible, and by trapping the light in the film and passing it through the photoactive silicon layer, which ultimately determine the performance of the solar modules and directly reduce the cost per watt peak.
Until now, Oerlikon said there has not been a supplier of a TCO plant on the global market. The contract with CMC also includes the option to upgrade capacity and migrate to Oerlikon´s next technology generation of Micromoph Tandem. The CMC fab, in addition to the 20-MWp fab completed by Oerlikon for erson in Germany, are the only two fully turnkey production facilities in the world for thin-film solar modules, the company added.