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| Cutting
Edge Solar Cell Technology: The Fast-Growing Trend in a Slow Global Economy |
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Ed Wijaranakula, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer, Infotix
Systems, Inc. - January
5,
2009
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Sharp's primary
markets are residential and commercial solar systems,
ranging from a 100 KW solar array on an ice rink rooftop to
the 1.6 MW
rooftop system at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Residential and commercial rooftop solar projects
are surging as homeowners and businesses are looking
to find ways to reduce their carbon footprints and the
amount of electricity they purchase from their local
utility companies. Beginning January 1, 2009, homeowners
and businesses will be eligible for a 30 percent federal tax
credit of the entire solar project's cost. The $3.3 billion
California
Solar Initiative plan alone could boost solar projects in California
up to a million rooftops by 2017.
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Currently, Sharp's Katsuragi plant
in the Nara Prefecture, Japan, which produces
silicon-based and amorphous silicon TFT-based PV modules, has a capacity of
710 MW. Early last year, Sharp
announced a 72 billion yen investment in an advanced amorphous
silicon thin-film solar cell plant in Sakai, Osaka
Prefecture with initial production of 480 MW.
Combined with the 160 MW capacity at the Katsuragi Plant,
Sharp's global total production capacity for thin-film solar cells
will reach 1 GW by April 2010.
Q-Cells' primary
markets are in silicon-based solar PV systems for
residential, commercial and
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utility-scale integrators,
including Beltsville, Maryland-based SunEdison, North
America's largest solar energy services provider.
The Quebec, Canada-based market research firm Electronics.ca
Publications, forecasts that the utility vendor
electricity solar equipment markets, driven
by large scale solar farm development worldwide, will
expand from $10
billion in 2007 to about $79 billion by 2014.
Q-Cells
gave guidance in August 2008 that their total production
capacity would rise to about 1.3 GW by the end of 2009.
Due to deterioration in project financing conditions and the uncertain market situation,
the company is expecting weak demand into early 2009
and has revised its forecast for total production in 2009
to between 800
MW and 1 GW. The company is still expecting strong
revenue growth of at least 40 percent to between €1.75
to €2.25 ($2.4 to $3.04 equivalent) billion.
Q-Cells has heavily
invested in future technologies with high commercial
potential in the coming
years. The list of companies in which Q-Cells
has minority stakes includes a 17.18 percent stake in Sandvika, Norway-based Renewable
Energy Corporation (REC), the world largest single and
multicrysalline solar wafers, a 33.3 percent stake
in EverQ, a joint venture between Q-Cells, REC and
Marlboro, MA-based Evergreen Solar Inc. [NASDAQ:ESLR], a
18.63 percent stake in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany-based
CSG Solar AG, a small crystalline silicon on glass PV
manufacturer,
and a 32 percent stake in Fremont,
California-based SOLARIA, a small start-up company
specializing
in the design and development of a concentrating PV (CPV) system
using proprietary plastic lenses that magnify the
light on solar cells. Small thin-film solar companies
in which the majority equity is owned by Q-Cells are Sontor, Calyxo,
Solibro and FlexCell.
Suntech Power Holdings
produces silicon-based PV modules at three Chinese production
sites including Wuxi, Luoyang and Qinghai. In August
2008, the company entered Japan's PV market by
acquiring Nagano, Japan-based MSK Corporation, one of
Japan's largest thin film PV manufacturers,
specializing
in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). MSK,
which develops and markets BIPV products such as
transparent, multifunctional solar panels or PV-TV, has
a production capacity of approximately 100 MW. PV-TV
is a building-integrated PV material that can function as
a solar panel, window glazing as well as a video display
screen.
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During
their Q3 2008
earnings conference call last October, Suntech revised
its full year 2008 PV product shipment target from
550MW to 490MW, citing tight credit conditions and
deferment of some customer orders. Suntech
said, however, that their production capacity reached 750MW in Q3 2008 and
was still on target to hit 1GW by the end of 2008.
In the conference
call, Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Suntech's Chairman and CEO,
stated that his company decided to hold further
capacity expansion until there was more visibility in
the status of the credit market. This could include a
new 300 MW PV cell production facility in Yangzhou,
about
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250 km northwest of Shanghai, China. Last September,
Suntech announced the groundbreaking of the Yangzhou
production site. The Yangzhou product plant is part of
Suntech's capacity expansion plans to reach 1.4GW
by year end 2009 and 2 GW by year end 2010.
"We have already received orders from the European customers for over 600 megawatts of PV products for 2009 and are pursuing a growing pipeline of additional orders. This indicates that core demand is strong though we are well aware of the challenges created by the turmoil in the financial market that may make it difficult for some orders to materialize."
added Dr. Zhengrong
Shi.
*
Currency exchange rate €
1 = $1.3528
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About the Author: Dr. Ed Wijaranakula is presently the
Chief Technology Officer at Infotix Systems, Inc. Prior to Infotix Systems, he has worked with
Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Micron, Motorola and Texas Instruments and has held senior as well
as managerial positions in semiconductor manufacturing companies. At the time of
publication, Dr.
Wijaranakula's portfolio does not hold any positions in any of the
financial products mentioned in the article.
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