Your daily dose of Photovoltaic Technology Developments and Solar News

By Sylvère Leu, Conergy AG, Frankfurt, Germany

ABSTRACT
Each year, the photovoltaic market has been achieving a two-digit growth rate. The resulting economy-of-scale effects are not enough to achieve grid parity on their own. In order to reduce the production costs to grid parity level, new concepts and ideas must be realised as the basis for a photovoltaic factory. There are four main requirements that must be fulfilled in order to adhere to this cost reduction strategy: a highly integrated factory; automated and stable processes; a production control system (PCS) that provides the statistic data in order to continually optimise the processes; and an optimally-sized aligned production capacity.

By Bettina Weiss, PV Group (North America), SEMI, USA

ABSTRACT
Many readers will equate SEMI with the SEMICON trade shows around the world, business and technical conferences, EHS and advocacy initiatives and, most of all, industry standards. Currently, SEMI has close to 2,000 member companies, about 20% of which are active in the photovoltaic sector. These companies form a community called PV Group. The mission of the PV Group is to serve the photovoltaic market with events, standards and services. Working with other industry groups throughout the world, SEMI is dedicated to advancing the growth and profitability of its members, and to achieve overall cost reduction to enable PV energy adoption worldwide. We listen closely to our constituents’ needs and are committed to developing unique approaches to unique problems. Connecting markets and industries that benefit from dialogue has been our mission for 38 years. Between former semiconductor professionals moving into PV, pure PV manufacturers and a startling number of start-ups, there is fertile ground for collective discussions in all regions of the world that are necessary to propel us forward.

Mark Osborne, Photovoltaics International

ABSTRACT

Rapid growth in the demand for photovoltaics has enabled an aggressive ramp of production not just on the part of the leading PV manufacturers, but by many new entrants in only the last few years. Continued robust demand is resulting in larger economies of scale production that, when combined primarily with a steady improvement in conversion efficiencies, is leading the industry towards a cost-per-watt level that could finally reach grid parity at peak usage levels by the 2012 timeframe. However, this may not in itself lead to the claimed industry goal without a shift to large-scale gigawatt manufacturing facilities. We discuss the opportunities for scaling PV manufacturing with Robert Gattereder, Managing Director of M+W Zander FE GmbH after a detailed study challenges the current mind set and forces manufacturers to consider scaling manufacturing to new heights.