Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

At First Solar’s corporate headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, a morale-boosting slogan adorns posters stuck to the outside of cubicle partitions: “MILESTONE MADE! TEN ONE ONE.” That’s “Ten,” for 10 years in business – at least in the company’s First Solar incarnation. The original firm Glasstech Solar, led by visionary Harold McMaster, actually set up shop in 1984, then became Solar Cells, Inc. in 1992, which begat the present entity in 1999. The middle “One” stands for the gigawatt’s worth of panels produced in the solar module factories in Ohio, Germany, and Malaysia – as well as the annual production capacity that will be ramped by the end of 2009. The final “One” stands for perhaps the biggest accomplishment of all – the dollar-per-manufactured-watt standard beaten by two cents by First Solar in the final quarter of 2008, a cost that has since shrunk to 93 cents per watt in the first quarter of 2009. But then, “Ten/One/0.93” doesn’t quite have the same ring.

Explosive growth in sales of critical subsystems and components for use in photovoltaic manufacturing equipment provided one of the few bright spots in an otherwise depressed market during 2008. The outlook for sales into the PV industry in 2009 is for demand to be relatively flat, but strong underlying demand for PV cells should lead to a recovery in 2010 and a return to double-digit growth rates, as outlined in this paper.

Solar photovoltaic power plants have emerged in recent years as a viable means of large-scale renewable energy power generation. A critical question facing these PV plants at the utility scale remains the competitiveness of their energy generation cost with that of other sources. The relative cost of electricity from a generating source can be compared through the commonly used levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) calculation. The LCOE equation evaluates the lifecycle energy cost and production of a power plant, allowing alternative technologies – with different scales of operation, investment, or operating time periods – to be compared. This article reviews the LCOE drivers for a PV power plant and the impact of a plant’s capacity factor on the system LCOE...

Over the past few decades, the PV equipment manufacturing market has seen a significant change in technologies. Cell sizes are being increased, while cell thickness has decreased at an ever-increasing speed of technological innovation, from 4'' 340μm cells in the 1990s to 6''+ 180μm being the current industry standard. Thin-film modules pose completely new challenges to module manufacturing technology with a strong integration of the manufacturing of the active layers into the module production flow. This articles analyses the pros and cons of an increased level of line integration from the viewpoint of an established PV module producer.

Solar enterprises will each be faced with the occasional surplus or lack of solar modules in their lifetimes. In these instances, it is useful to adjust these stock levels at short notice, thus creating a spot market. Spot markets serve the short-term trade of different products, where the seller is able to permanently or temporarily offset surplus, while buyers are able to access attractive offers on surplus stocks and supplement existing supply arrangements as a last resort.

The current industry situation of more competitive business approaches, increased PV project sizes and investments but declining profit margins renders an accurate knowledge of PV performance a vital factor in remaining competitive. Comprehension of expected lifetime and energy yield of PV generators is essential. Therefore, accurate characterization of PV modules is quickly becoming a more and more significant issue. This article gives an overview of the characterization topics of PV modules in terms of safety, failure susceptibility, overall reliability, system performance and energy rating.

Despite over 30 years of unprofitability, being viewed as too expensive and in many cases, unattractive, the PV industry has also enjoyed over 30 years of strong growth. Though granted, in the past, this growth was often from a much smaller base than the gigawatt levels experienced today, it is still an impressive achievement. Table 1 provides a history of PV industry growth from 1978 to the present. The data in Table 1 is based on what was sold into the global market to the first point of sale, eliminating double shipment (sales) of technology.

A variety of thin-film technologies are now entering a volume manufacturing phase. The benchmark has already been set by First Solar, Inc. in its conversion efficiencies, volume ramp and lowest cost-per-watt in the PV industry. Large-area thin-film deposition is a critical process step, dictating cell performance, reliability and manufacturing throughput. However, adoption of thin-film solar cells has been limited in the past by relatively complex and costly manufacturing processes. The advent of rotating cylindrical magnetrons for sputtering is demonstrating the potential to significantly reduce thin-film manufacturing costs. In this paper we discuss the basics of the technology and the developments taking place with some of the leading suppliers of sputtering target technology for the PV industry.

Although simple in concept, a photovoltaic solar cell is a difficult feat of technology in execution. The challenge of balancing cell structure design, material optimization and module technology to achieve efficient, low-cost modules that perform in aggressive environments for up to a generation is huge. The modules’ structure has to support and protect a thin, fragile slice of semiconductor, while ensuring a stable environment free from contamination and moisture with little or no change in the incident light on the cell.

New interconnections requirements for utility-connected photovoltaic systems are coming into force in several European countries, armed with the task of supporting the grid operation and stability. This approach to better integration of photovoltaic systems into the electric power system enables a larger dissemination of renewable energies. This paper presents the new grid code in Germany as an example for improved integration, complemented by a brief report regarding activities currently being undertaken to ensure European harmonisation of interconnection requirements.