Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news
Cell Processing
Opinion
Q-Cells to roll-out polycrystalline cells with 17% conversion efficiency in 2010
As part of its new strategy to focus greater effort and resources on technological advancements of its solar cells, Q-Cells will be launching a polycrystalline cell with a conversion efficiency of 17% in 2010, using existing production lines. The cells were developed at Q-Cells new €50 million ‘Technikum’ pilot line in Thalheim, Germany. Q-Cells claimed this was a new efficiency record for polycrystalline cells. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) has tested and certified that modules using the high-performance cells achieved efficiency of 15.9% and an output of 249W.
News
Chad Industries, Alpha Omega Power join forces to market solar test systems, PV cell sorters
Two privately held, U.S.-based solar manufacturing equipment companies have joined forces to comarket their products. Chad Industries and Alpha Omega Power Technologies say the agreement will benefit the market by making it easier to obtain fully integrated solar simulated test systems and solar-cell sorters.
Q-Cells CEO exits amid investor anxiety
Q-Cells chief executive officer Anton Milner has resigned with immediate effect amid fears of a 'loss of confidence' from the company's investors. The supervisory board met to discuss a management shake-up on March 11, at which point they accepted Milner's exit. Current CFO, Nedim Cen, will take over as CEO, holding both positions.
Order Focus: New diffusion system sales push Amtech’s 2010 order book past US$80 million
New orders for its diffusion processing systems have pushed Amtech Systems new order flow past US$80 million in its 2010 financial year. Solar orders in its fiscal Q2 reached US$27 million. New orders worth US$8.5 million were recently received from two new customers in Asia and one new customer in Europe.
Kyocera ramps annual solar cell production target to 1GW
Kyocera has announced that it will significantly increase its annual solar cell production targets to meet the growing demand for solar energy products in the global market. New targets aim for an increase to 1GW annually by March 2013, which is more than 2.5 times the current fiscal year 2010 production volume of 400MW.
2BG teams with Rome University on new solar cell development
2BG and Rise Technology, the company founded by researchers of the La Sapienza University in Rome, have agreed to a collaborative move on the development of solar cell technologies. The partners will research the production of crystalline silicon cells less than 100μm thick.
centrotherm photovoltaics becomes second largest equipment supplier as sales soar 35.9% in 2009
centrotherm photovoltaics has posted preliminary financial results for 2009, highlighting strong revenue growth for the past three years and forecasted continued growth in 2010. The multi-market equipment and turnkey supplier posted revenue of €509.1 million in 2009, an increase of 35.9% compared to revenue of €374.7 million in 2008.
Technical Papers
Challenges and advances in back-side metallization
In today's market, crystalline silicon wafer technology dominates industrial solar cell production. Common devices feature opposing electrodes that are situated at the front and rear surface of the wafer and subsequent front-to-rear interconnection is used for module assembly. This paper reflects the functions which have to be fulfilled for the backside contact of the solar cell as well as challenges and advances for the two basic classes: full-area and local rear contact formation. While full-area contacting has proven to be a reliable technology for industrial production, local contacting through dielectric layers has yet to be put through its paces in industrial implementation.
Improving cell efficiency and reducing costs: applying experiences in microelectronics
The PV industry is expected to eventually reduce its manufacturing costs well below €1/Wp. Major technological changes lie ahead of us for manufacturing wafers, solar cells and modules if this cost target is to be met. In order to focus R&D efforts amongst the myriad options, and to speed up the learning curve, the PV industry (equipment vendors, material suppliers and PV manufacturers) may benefit from collaborative efforts guided by an ITRS-like roadmap. In this paper we present the IMEC roadmap, the target of which is to reduce drastically the amount of pure Si needed per Wp by combining efficiencies beyond 20% with aggressive reductions in wafer thicknesses.
Product Briefings
New Product: Roth & Rau’s new firing furnace is characterized by high efficiency at low cost
Product Briefing: With the acquisition of Tecnofimes, Roth & Rau has collaborated with the subsidiary to develop a new firing furnace, dubbed CAMiNI. The system is characterized by high efficiency at low operating costs. The initially offered model with 2 lanes (6” wafers) provides the basis for an extension, which facilitates the firing of solar cell contacts onto up to three lanes at the same time. The throughput of the CAMiNI is indicated with ≥ 6,000 wafers/h. Roth & Rau has already received its first purchase orders for the system.
New Product: Sensors Unlimited SWIR based cameras detect wafer defects and cell efficiencies
Product Briefing Outline: Sensors Unlimited, part of Goodrich Corp., says that its high-resolution, shortwave infrared (SWIR) area and linescan cameras are being used to improve the manufacturing yield of photovoltaic cells. SWIR technology is well-suited to monitor the quality of solar thin films, concentrated PV, and crystalline cells, to maximize efficiency of the solar cell manufacturing process through final assembly of the completed modules.
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