2.3 Cell Manufacturing

Solterra Fotovoltaico SA has completed the start-up phase of its monocrystalline silicon cell manufacturing line in Switzerland and is heading for two-shift operation by the middle of 2002. The cell production line has a capacity of 2 Megawatts per shift and the main solar module products are of 70-75W and 130-150W power output. The company also assembles multicrystalline modules using cells bought-in from an overseas supplier. Solterra is currently negotiating two major supply contracts into Germany and one into Italy.

In Italy, ENEL and Cam Tecnologie announced plans for an amorphous silicon module manufacturing plant. Cam Tecnologie has set up a joint venture with Enel GreenPower, to develop new ways of producing electricity from renewable sources. Twenty per cent of a planned investment of 50 million euro in the Joint Venture will be allocated to photovoltaics. Some existing assets in ENEL GreenPower will be transferred to the new joint venture. The joint venture plans to establish a new photovoltaic production facility. The facility will encompass two production lines, the first one with a capacity of 5 Megawatts.

The Factory will be located in Catania, Italy and will use amorphous silicon technology. The Pirelli arm of the venture (Cam Tecnologie is a division of Italy's Camfin group, the holding company of the Pirelli Group) will provide technology support in the area of thin film amorphous silicon deposition and is also looking at other innovative materials for solar cells.

Cam Tecnologie forecasts that wind and photovoltaic energy will account for around one third of its revenue by 2003. In parallel, Pirelli Labs, the research and development center of Italian tire and cable group Pirelli, has announced that it has signed two agreements with Italian and international institutes, aimed at studying new materials and components for fuel and photovoltaic cells.

In the United States, First Solar's thin film cadmium telluride plant in Perrysburg has entered commercial production. It is making 600 panels a week now and hopes to make up to 1,000 a week by late summer.

The company, which has owners from Arizona but has its only manufacturing plant in Toledo, Ohio, has the capacity to make 7,000 panels a week. First Solar will begin shipping product to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in May/June 2002.

SMUD has placed an initial order for 2,000 panels and is considering a larger long-term contract, according to a SMUD senior project manager.

The formation of a joint venture manufacturing plant in Tienen, Belgium by Electrabel, TotalFinaElf and IMEC reported in Marketbuzz 2002 has received European Union approval. Construction of the plant should take around 18 months, with production scheduled to begin in mid-2003. The plant will have an annual capacity of between 2.5 and 3.8 million cells.

Electrabel is taking a 42.5% stake in Photovoltech through its subsidiary, Soltech NV. TotalFinaElf is using its Total Energie Developpement SA unit to have a 42.5% holding. IMEC will hold the remaining 15%. ASE Americas has announced plans to build a fully-automated solar cell manufacturing line at its facility in Billerica, Massachusetts. The project is the third phase of a planned four-phase strategic expansion for the company. The first two phases, which increased solar wafer manufacturing to 20 Megawatts per year using its edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) process, were completed in March (see above). The new cell line will be totally automated, with no batch processes.

The first equipment for the cell line, which will use 10 MW of the wafers grown at ASE Americas, will arrive in December 2002. The expansion will create 30 new jobs at the facility. Pacific Solar has released the first technical and commercial details of its thin-film PV technology of crystalline silicon on glass technology (CSG). In principle, the technology combines the benefits of low material costs and large area processing that come with thin film technology, with the reliability and high efficiency of crystalline silicon.

A textured glass substrate is used and the active layers deposited in a single vacuum deposition process. The avoidance of a transparent oxide coating as window layer, and the ability to keep the silicon layer to only two microns thickness by effective light trapping, both contribute significant cost savings. The current cell line produces twenty modules of size up to 400 mm by 300 mm. Average efficiency values of 6.5% (standard deviation 0.2%) and a highest efficiency of 8% are currently more typical of thin film than crystalline silicon performance, however. Projected manufacturing costs for 1.4m2 substrates at full capacity are estimated to be $130/m2. This is equivalent to $1.95/W at 7% efficiency from an 8MW plant. At a larger plant scale and higher efficiencies (10%), costs could fall to $1-1.25/W.

Given the challenges of a combination of areal and volume scale-up, it would seem that the availability of volume product is likely to be several years away.

2.4 Module Manufacturing

Solar-Manufaktur Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG (SMD) plans to start production from their new module production plant in August 2002. The plant has hosted a topping out ceremony marking completion of the first major stage of construction. SMD was founded in November 2001 by the well-established Engineering Bureau for Renewable Energy Planning in Oldenburg.

The plant is being constructed in Prenzlau, some 90km north-east of Berlin in the state of Brandenburg, an area of high unemployment. It will cost 8 million euros, create up to fifty jobs and has received financial support from the state government. Production is planned to reach 1.5 MW in 2002 and 15 MW, its full capacity, in 2003. The product range will be based around a high quality 150 W module. Initially, SMD will target the German market.

In Namibia, a $6.4m solar module factory, Nopasika Electronic (Pty) Ltd, has been officially opened by President Sam Nujoma in March 2002. Total Energie in South Africa, has increased its manufacturing capacity from 5 MW to 10 MW. Solar cell supplies to the South African plant are from Photowatt and Q-cells.

Uganda Electronics and Computers Limited, under a partnership with Danish firm Gaia, expects to start assembling the panels in Kampala, Uganda under Gaia's quality control system, and later export modules to Eastern and Central Africa and Europe. The capacity of Solarworld's former GPV solar module plant will be increased in 2002.

By the end of the year, production capacity of the facility will double from the present 10 Megawatts to 20 Megawatts. The original target of 15 Megawatts advised last year has been stretched due to modernization of the production process. BP Solar has confirmed its long expected decision to establish in Hameln, Germany, a solar module assembly factory with 20 MW annual capacity. With a total investment of approximately 30 million Marks it will create over 100 jobs in Hameln. The Lower Saxony government will support the project to a level of 10%. Construction is expected this year, with completion and commencement of production in the fourth quarter of 2002. Initially, the factory will assemble modules using crystalline silicon solar cells.

In a $2.7 million contract, Spire Corporation is to provide ATmicro Solar of Cyprus with a turnkey 10 Megawatt PV module production line due to be operational by year-end.