China Solar Power has bought ThinSilicon, a developer of thin-film manufacturing process technology based in Mountain View, CA. The amorphous/micromorph-silicon TFPV company, which recently began ramping commercial operations at its Ulvac-equipped 32MW manufacturing plant in Yantai, believes the acquisition of the U.S. firm’s proprietary efficiency-enhancing, high-throughput process and device technology will help it become the lowest-cost manufacturer of PV modules in China.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
CSP recently broke ground on its second manufacturing facility, located in Jiangyin, China, and has entered into development and financing agreements with two other Chinese municipalities to build and operate additional production facilities within those cities. When completed, the manufacturing facilities under construction and under development will boost the Hong Kong-based company’s annual production capacity to >500MW, which CSP claims will make it China’s largest manufacturer of thin-film PV modules.
“This transaction represents a classic combination of Silicon Valley innovation with large-scale, low-cost Chinese manufacturing,” said Frank Liu, cofounder and CEO of CSP. “To sustain our competitive cost advantage, we recognize the need to continually innovate in the R&D lab and on the manufacturing floor. We will remain vigilant in our search for technologies that have the potential to further enhance our low-cost position.”
