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With 95% of module shipments in 2011 accounted for by a manufacturing group that is comprised of technologies specific to the c-Si community and thin film manufacturer, First Solar, for those seeking a disruptive alternative to compete with this dominance there are few options that command as much attention as CIGS.
Plunging PV prices have brought the world closer to grid parity than ever before as solar developers scramble to undercut each other with bargain prices bid into California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard.
In spite of the devastating disasters which struck Japan in March 2011, the PV market continued growing and exceeded the 1-GW mark in 2011. The market growth – 30% - was far less than in 2009 and 2010, when it exceeded 100%. China was twice as big as Japan in 2011, with the national Feed-in tariff (FIT) policy and ample of module supplies. This year, Japan embarking on a road to higher growth, by finally implementing a true FIT like other leading PV counties, and by diversifying its market beyond the residential segment.
Concern about copper prices is not a recent phenomenon in the history of electrical generation and delivery. In 1879, Thomas Edison calculated that he would need to spend $18,000 to test his first ever electric light system around his lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
PV is a global market, but there are currently no global certification standards. As the module market space continues to expand in size and numbers of manufacturers, global regulatory groups are challenged to write and enforce global material and module standards. Currently material and module manufacturers are forced to certify, and develop, according to multiple regional requirements. For the material developer, regulatory approval on both materials and modules takes upwards of a year. As it cannot be conducted contiguous to other development steps, this is a ‘direct add-on’ to the time lag between innovation investment and the profit return.
The PV inverter industry did a good job limiting production and clearing excessive inventory levels in 2011. After over shipping about 3GW in 2010 to the global market place the inverter industry was able to meet 2011 installation demand via consumption of these excess plus new shipments. 2011 shipments were based on better demand-matched production rates then the year before when production constraints helped stimulate over ordering and over production later in the year.
Concentrated solar power has run out of steam as PV prices plunge and transmission costs to CSP resources stranded out in the desert soar … or so many in the PV industry would have you believe. But CSP academics and advocates say the technology could be poised to perform a very fine balancing act on California’s grid.
Sometimes relying on financial results to paint a picture of the status of a company is more than adequate but this has rarely applied to Renewable Energy Corporation (REC). Though many Chinese PV manufacturers have gone down the fully-integrated business model, it was REC that was the first and it does it with a truly international manufacturing footprint. However, it has been a difficult path to tread and many ups and downs along the way. Feisty, determined, unlucky but pragmatic are words that come to mind when characterizing the last five years or so of its activities, events and business development. Colourful is a nice way to sum it up.
2011 was hardly a vintage year for thin-film solar in the US. Doubts about revenue-ready technologies based on copper, indium, gallium and selenide coalesced around the Solyndra bankruptcy in August. In December, First Solar decided it could not replicate its success in cadmium telluride, and shuttered its CIGS division.
Increasing panel efficiencies and power ratings represents a key deliverable from the PV industry today. These requirements are not simply long-term objectives for the industry as a whole: they are essential at the company level to differentiate leading suppliers within an overcrowded and highly competitive manufacturing environment.
Efficiency enhancements typically require changes in manufacturing process flow and materials (raw and consumable) used in production. Ideally, the technologies that drive these changes will be those featured within a technology roadmap.
