Green Options » thin-film

Thin-Film Solar Panels to Double their Share of the Market by 2013?

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:12:39 +0000

A new report by iSuppli Corp. predicts that by 2013, 31% of the solar panel market will be accounted for by thin-film solar panels. These thin-film panels are rapidly replacing traditional crystalline photovoltaic panels.

Thin-film solar is being used in a variety of new applications, from solar roof shingles to solar tiles (like clay tiles) to solar panels glued right onto the roof. Its flexibility in use is one major benefit of this technology.

Lower cost is the number one factor responsible for its anticipated growth, but there are trade-offs as well.

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Fab2Farm Could Be the Next ‘Beatles’ of Solar

Jeff Kart — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:08:38 +0000

The idea looks like a cool new version of the old SimCity computer game. You link a city to a solar manufacturing plant to a solar farm. The plant employs the people, the farm collects the energy and the city is up and running.

But this isn’t a game, it’s a pitch from Applied Materials, a Fortune 500 company known for making computer microchips.

They call it the best idea in the last 4 billion years.

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The Tipping Point for Green Jobs: Johns Manville Dives Into Solar Roof Market

Tina Casey — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:58:44 +0000

Building materials giant Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company once best known for its asbestos shingles, has just announced that it is entering the solar roof market in a big way. The company will buy thin film solar laminates made by Michigan-based United Solar Ovonic, a subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices. United Solar has already started bringing green jobs into Michigan, and the Johns Manville connection could mean that more expansion is in store.

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XeroCoat Boosts Thin Film Solar Efficiency, Lowers Costs with New Coatings

Tina Casey — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:57:49 +0000

Dirt and reflection are no friends to thin film solar panel efficiency, and XeroCoat Inc. is on the way to solving both problems with a set of patented solar coatings that keep solar modules cleaner while cutting down on reflection. The Redwood City-based company has just won a U.S. Department of Energy grant to develop a method for applying its anti-reflective coating directly onto assembled thin film modules. A XeroCoat subsidiary is also working on a complementary coating that resists soil and dust, under a grant from the Australian government. Along with lowering production costs and boosting efficiency, the coatings could substantially reduce maintenance costs for solar energy, bringing it closer to true cost-competitiveness with coal and other non-renewable fuels.

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Cleantech Group: Solar Startups See Venture Capital Fall in 2Q

Jennifer Kho — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:58:50 +0000

Solar venture investments hit a three-year low in the second quarter, the Cleantech Group said Wednesday. According to Brian Fan, senior director of research for the group, solar startups in North America, Europe, China and India raised a total of only $113.8 million for the quarter, which is down 7 percent from $365.7 million in the first quarter and down 86 percent from $834.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

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SRS Introduces Thin Film Solar Tile for Clay Tile Roofs

Derek Markham — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:52:41 +0000

SRS Energy, a developer of sustainable solar roofing systems, is launching Solé Power Tile this month, bringing the first building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing product to curved roofing systems.

“Sustainability and green living is high on the consumer agenda for 2009, with so many homeowners looking to save money and also be eco-conscious. With green building playing such a significant role in the Obama administration’s economic stimulus efforts, it could not come at a better time.” - Marty Low, CEO of SRS Energy
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New Thin Film Process Takes Solar Another Step to Affordability

Tina Casey — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:49:47 +0000

A new piece of thin film manufacturing equipment with the unlikely name of Viper (TM) could help bring solar energy to the masses. Viper (TM) was developed by Sencera, a North Carolina company that got its start supplying thin film hardware for manufacturing transistors and integrated circuits.

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Thin-Film Solar Cells Get a Boost From Nanotechnology

Michael Ratliff — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:37:02 +0000

A new European Union funded research project called “ROD-SOL” aims to improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells using nanotechnology. The three year project has a budget of EUR 4 million and may yield a breakthrough for solar power.

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Study: Iron Pyrite is No Fool’s Gold for Solar Manufacturers

Alex Felsinger — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:14:46 +0000

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released a study this week concluding that the solar industry could use many cheaper and more abundant alternatives to silicon, including iron pyrite — most commonly known as fool’s gold.

In total, the researchers found 23 alternative semiconductors, but only 12 are more easily found than silicon. Iron pyrite was named the most probable solution among those 12. Solar producers have often faced shortages of silicon, so even one new material would be a welcome jolt for the industry.

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Can the World’s Worst CD and DVD Manufacturer Do Better with Solar Energy?

Matthew Phelan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:44:35 +0000

Sun Well Solar—a subsidiary of the notoriously poor CD and DVD manufacturer, CMC Magnetics—has announced today that it is one month ahead of schedule in the ramp-up of its new photovoltaic production line.

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Cleantech Investment Slowdown Predicted in 2009

Jennifer Kho — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:49:40 +0000

At first glance, the latest numbers from the Cleantech Group look like terrific news. After all, they conclude that 2008 was a record year for cleantech investments, with venture deals in North America, Europe, Israel, China and India reaching a total of $8.4 billion, up 38 percent from $6.1 billion in 2007.

But most of that money was dealt out in the first three quarters, with investment slowing significantly – as expected – in the fourth quarter.

According to preliminary numbers, venture capitalists in these regions committed $1.7 billion in 99 deals in the fourth quarter, down 35 percent from the third quarter and 4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007. In North America, by far the biggest venture-capital region, fourth-quarter investments totaled $1.14 billion, a decrease of 38 percent from $1.83 billion in the third quarter and of 5.8 percent from $1.21 billion in the last quarter of 2007.

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California Completes Its Largest Solar Installation Yet

Cassie Walker — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:40:52 +0000

If you’ve ever flown into LAX on a clear day, you have seen the miles of industrial buildings that stretch out into the desert. Edison International has seen it too, and has taken advantage of one of those empty rooftops to install the largest solar panel installation in the state.

Mounted on the roof of a distribution center owned by Prologis in Fontana, 50 miles east of LA, the 600,000 square feet of panels will produce about 2 megawatts, enough electricity to power up to 1,300 homes. The thin-film panels were installed by First Solar. Even better, this is only the first of about 150 similar projects planned for factory and warehouse roofs in SoCal.

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Breakthrough Zinc Oxide Process Increases Thin Film Solar Performance

Andrew Williams — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:54:51 +0000

Solar PV manufacturer Oerlikon Solar has pioneered a new thin film solar technology process, which it claims has made its solar cells 7 per cent efficient - a 16 per cent energy improvement over its previous technology. The advance has led to a 50 per cent increase in the capacity of its thin film solar fabrication plant.

So, why is this important? Well, thin film cells are typically a lot cheaper to produce than more common silicon solar cells, but often suffer from significantly lower conversion efficiencies. Oerlikon’s breakthrough moves us a lot closer to the day when thin film becomes more cost-effective than silicon-based panels - which could mean a dramatic rise in the adoption of solar power in homes and businesses.

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Australian Scientists Create World’s Most Efficient Solar Cells

Andrew Williams — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:11:39 +0000

Scientists at the University of New South Wales have set a new world record by creating the first silicon solar cell to achieve 25% efficiency.

Team leader, Prof. Martin Green of the university’s ARC Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence, says their world-beating solar cell is now a massive six percent more efficient than the next best technology. The record edges the current generation of solar cell technology closer to the theoretical limit of 29% efficiency.

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A Thin Film Solar Installation Revisited

Michelle Bennett — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:30:54 +0000

A season has passed since we covered the installation of Magco Inc.’s new thin film solar panel installation. The previous article generated a lot of interest and questions, so it’s time to get back on the roof and report on some real-world figures.

If you need a refresher on thin film solar technology, check out two of our previous posts. The important thing to remember here is that thin film solar is lighter than silicon panels, and uses different wavelengths of light.

In May of 2008, Magco Inc. installed 27kW of Unisolar’s triple-junction laminate panels. That’s 4,900 sq ft of thin film goodness. The building contains a warehouse and offices, and it has a metal roof. The solar panels were literally glued to the roof.

Total installation cost: US$215,000 (including inverter and hiring a master electrician)

Energy produced each month provides about 1/3 of Magco’s total needs. That may not seem like a lot, but recall that this includes a warehouse with associated heating/cooling, machinery and equipment. Magco anticipates producing about US$9,000 each year from the panels. So let’s do the math:

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Over $400 M Poured Into Thin-Film Solar Tech In One Week

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:02:14 +0000

This past week was an eventful one for thin-film solar companies Nanosolar and AVA Solar , which received a total of over $400 million in funding.

Nanosolar, which took in $300 million, has now raised nearly half a billion dollars of capital. The company plans to use the money to expand thin-film solar panel production at its San Jose and Berlin factories.

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Solar Thin Film Technology Attracts Big Players in Japan

Carol Gulyas — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:26:34 +0000

Thin film solar technology has attracted interest from venture capitalists because of its higher efficiency, lower use of limited silicon, and more easily automated production processes. Now, established Japanese players in the solar arena are getting in the thin film game, followed by companies in China and India, as reported in Renewable Energy World.

Mitsubishi Chemical already produces materials for the solar industry but sees opportunity to produce the cells themselves
Sanyo is an established producer of crystalline solar cells, but has opened an Advanced PV Development Center in Gifu, Japan to concentrate on developing thin film technology.

This is good news for solar energy advocates, as these companies have the capital and the knowledge base to ramp up production more rapidly than startups, while increasing efficiency and cost savings. According to Sanyo’s Makoto Tanaka:

“‘Our target date for volume production was 2012, but in order to move that up, we’ve decided to invest an additional US $14 million,’ said Tanaka, bringing total investment … to some US $70M through 2010. He noted that the production ramp should be eased because part of the new process is very similar to that already used in Sanyo’s mainstay heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer (HIT) cells, which sandwich a single-crystal silicon substrate between layers of amorphous silicon thin films.”

Sadly, the United States is not one of the countries competing on this scale with Sanyo and Mitsubishi, who see their main competition coming from China and India. Though the U.S. company Nanosolar has been a leading innovator in thin film, and Open Energy is making big inroads in the production of Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) modules using thin film tech, they are still comparatively small players in the space, along with FirstSolar. Let’s hope that the U.S. steps up to provide the kind of legislative support that U.S. companies need to move forward at a faster pace in developing new solar technologies.

Image Credit: Ovonic.com

Related Posts:

A Thin-film Solar Installation

Solar Thin-film Ready to Ramp Up Production?

A Thin-Film Solar Panel Installation

Michelle Bennett — Sat, 24 May 2008 15:11:37 +0000

Many people envision solar power as rigid silicon panels mounted on a roof. With thin film solar cells, you’re more likely to not see them, or even know they’re there. This article is about a real-life thin film solar project.

Not many bloggers are able to witness the technologies we research and write about. It’s one thing to be able to buy afford a cool “green” gadget (usually not very green), but another to see the many forms of solar, wind, geothermal, etc., which are always changing and developing around the world. So when my employer decided to go solar, you might imagine my excitement.

At the moment I work for Magco Inc., a Tecta America company. Tecta is a national commercial roofing corporation that can install green roofs, solar lighting, and solar panels alongside a variety of traditional roofing systems. This solar project is pretty straight forward: our building has a big, flat roof on top of a hill without any shade. You’d have trouble finding a sunnier spot for solar panels.

I was double delighted when I heard that they ordered thin-film solar! Naturally inquiring minds wanted to know: why and what kind?

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40,000 Solar Jobs in a Cloudy Country: Germany’s Solar Subsidies Debated

Carol Gulyas — Sun, 18 May 2008 11:44:13 +0000

A May 16 article in the New York Times focused on the debate in Germany regarding whether generous subsidies for solar energy should be continued. Buried in the story was the remarkable fact that Germany has created 40,000 jobs in formerly blighted industrial areas by “turbo-charging” the growth of the solar industry there. Imagine if our government took a leadership role in jump-starting solar production in areas like Pittsburgh, Indiana, and Michigan, where much of the infrastructure and work force still remain from the declining steel and auto industries. Some facts:

Germany has half the sunshine hours of San Diego.
An American company, Signet Solar, chose to build its thin film plant in Germany, not the U.S.
The engine that grew Germany’s solar industry is its feed-in tariff, which requires power companies to buy citizen-produced solar energy at an above-market rate for 20 years. Citizens have responded — by putting solar panels on nearly every available surface.
Spain, France, Italy and Greece have copied Germany’s subsidy plan. California is using a version of it by requiring utilities to pay customers rebates for the amount of energy they would have bought if they didn’t have solar modules.
Growing solar has helped other alternative energy production to grow as well: Germany gets 14.2 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, putting it ahead of the EU target of 12.5 percent from renewables by 2010.

Critics of the subsidies argue that they will eventually make solar energy too costly vs. other energy sources; defenders argue that the support for solar still doesn’t match subsidies to the dirty and declining coal industry, and that conventional energy costs will rise at a higher rate. Others charge that this is a classic attempt by large centralized power companies to weaken the role of distributed generation — citizen-generated, de-centralized power sources. Whether or not Germany decreases subsidies at a faster rate than planned, for now they are the world’s largest market for PV systems.

“To develop a technology, you’ve got to create an industry,” said Mr. Milner, the chief executive of Q-Cells, referring to the German success story. “You can wait and wait and wait for costs to come down, but it takes too long.” –Mark Landler, New York Times, 5/16/08

New Solar Trends at Solar 2008 Conference in San Diego

Carol Gulyas — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:32:40 +0000

New trends spotted at the American Solar Energy Society conference last week in San Diego (courtesy of Illinois Solar Energy Association President Mark Burger, who attended):

From Bosch, a new generation of solar flat plate collectors (used in solar thermal water heating applications) that can be mounted on the roof at a lower angle, addressing some peoples’ aesthetic concerns. The panels are also lighter-weight and easier to mount even on high roofs. Low-profile collectors were also unveiled by Schuco, Viessman, and Velux. Perhaps next year, one of the innovative solar companies will be from the U.S.?
Solar thin film technology is exceeding expectations, with market share estimated at 3%, vs. 1-2%. Thin film is the new solar kid on the block, celebrated because of its lower cost, higher efficiency and more flexible applications.
SolarBuzz reported a 62% increase in world PV production. “Germany’s PV market reached 1,328 MW in 2007 and now accounts for 47% of the world market. Spain soared by over 480% to 640 MW, while the U.S. increased by 57% to 220 MW, [making it] the world’s largest market behind Japan, once the world leader.”
ASES (American Solar Energy Society), the conference’s sponsor, announced a push to establish more student chapters, in order to enlist solar energy’s future leaders. (Photo from VELUX image gallery.)

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