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Tom Cheyney
Tom Cheyney is former senior editor of PV-Tech / Photovoltaics International magazine. A veteran technology journalist / editor / blogger, he covered the semiconductor, microelectronics and solar sectors for many years - since fax machines were state of the art. His PV-Tech blog has become a must-read for industry insiders and observers. He was also chief editor of "The Rise of Thin-Film Solar Technology" book published in early 2010.
Monday's
announcement that Dow Chemical's Building Solutions unit has asked Global Solar Energy to participate
in its Department of Energy Solar America Initiative (SAI) project to
develop building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products came as no
surprise--to me, anyway. During Chip Shots' visit to Global's Tucson,
AZ, new plant last Friday, my hosts gave me a head's up on the news.
The manufacturer (yes, manufacturer)
of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film PV will work with
the megacorporation's subsidiary to create and bring to market flexible
solar-roofing materials, part of the SAI's goal of creating "solar
electricity cost competitiveness with grid electricity by 2015."
"The flexible thin films bring the opportunity to add another layer
to the solar industry by making OEM or custom solar panels a reality,"
opined Global Solar's Tim Teich, VP of sales and marketing. "That's
your solar shingle, that's your rolled roofing, any side of your
building that faces the sun can be an energy generator. If you
visualize that laminated to the panels on this building as you walked
in, it is really not that far off. It's just a matter of productizing
it."
Desert sun: Global Solar's new factory.
(Photo: Tom Cheyney)
Dow is one of the main players in the SAI's Technology Pathway
Partnership (TPP) announced in March 2007, a program budgeted at more
than $165 million over its first three years that is meant to
"accelerate the commercialization of US-produced solar PV systems." In
addition to the Dow-led and Global Solar-fed project on "fully
integrated building science solutions for residential and commercial PV
energy generation," other efforts and their team leaders include
high-efficiency concentrating PV power systems (Boeing Spectrolab),
low-cost high-concentration PV systems for utility power generation
(Amonix), a value-chain partnership to accelerate US PV growth (GE
Energy), and development of an AC module system (GreenRay).
Projects with a thin-film PV flavor are also in the mix, including
one for creating thin-film PV systems (Miasole), another for delivering
grid-parity electricity on flat commercial rooftops using printed PV
cells (Nanosolar), and yet another focused on producing low-cost
thin-film BIPV systems (Uni-Solar Ovonics).
Miasole's status might be in doubt for its own TPP project,
however, since Global Solar's participation in the Dow BIPV project
means that Miasole could not come through with its own version of
flexible CIGS PV material. A quick check of the
SAI "fact sheet project prospectus" reveals Miasole as the original TFPV provider working with the Dow unit.
Confirming this without naming names, Global's Teich told me that
"we've joined Dow's Solar America Initiative because one of the
suppliers that they chose before could not deliver virtually anything
in the thin-film CIGS. We've already achieved trauche one because of
our 10% [conversion efficiency]."
"More importantly, that large company has made a decision to get
into this in a very large way, since they provide materials to the big
builders of the world," he continued. "That makes it a reality right
away when that kind of company has committed an entire resource to
that. And it's well down the path. I've been working with them for two
years."
The first strings of flexible stainless-steel CIGS cells have
started rolling out of the 110,000 square-foot Global Solar factory
floor. The fab has started to fill up with process tools with more on
the way and should ramp up to its initial 40-MW capacity by year's end.
By 2010, if the company executes its game plan, the fab will expand to
an eventual capacity of 140 MW.
Teich, CFO Steve Alexander, and especially CTO Jeff Britt gave me
an extensive tour of the facility during my visit, followed by in-depth
discussions over lunch. Look for more Chip Shots reports about Global
Solar over the next week or two, with a look at the company's
production line, its technology and products, the soon-to-be-built
solar-module farm that will provide a portion of the plant's
electricity, and other details about the CIGS innovator and its new
desert home.
