Solar Cell Manufacture and Demand Booming as LA Checks Output Against Design Specs

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). The worldwide launch rate for solar cell manufacturing plants with an annual production capacity of over 50 MW of products is increasing, and the industry is receiving the backing of governments in developed and developing countries as an appropriate technology for dedicated projects. (and for grid connection with inverters now available).

Industry sources report that global solar power generation capacity was around 560 MW in 2002 that represented a 43% increase over 2001. Top estimates say that the solar generation could have a capacity of over 5,000 MW by 2010 which would mean that growth from now on could be exponential rather than incremental. In an energy industry used to looking at single projects generating hundreds of MW, and therefore many thousands of kW, it is worth noting that a commercially viable and socially useful solar PV project can be measured in tens of kW. An industry capacity of 5 million kW would represent a total of many thousands of solar powered projects up and running.

The largest cell manufacturing plant in China has been inaugurated by Yingli New Energy Resources at Baoding in North China's Hebei province. The plant, which has been developed over a period of eight years, has a projected annual capacity of 50 MW and is to be used by the National Development and Reform Commission as a model to promote the commercial utilization of solar energy in China. The central government is drafting a specially focused piece of legislation to promote the use of clean energy, with a particular focus on solar energy.

Towards the end of 2002 GT Solar (Merrimack, New Hampshire) won the contract to supply a GT-CELFAB PV (photovoltaic) fabrication line for Baoding Yingli Energy Resources. The turnkey solar cell fabrication line was designed to produce high efficiency solar cells from round or square, mono or mutli-crystalline silicon wafers. Baoding Yingli also purchased a GT-WAFFAB wafer fabrication line in 2003.

In Japan, Mitsubishi Electric Corp (Tokyo, Japan) is putting around $31 million behind its plan to increase annual production capacity at its Nagatsugawa and Kyoto plants from the current 50MW to 90 MW by July this year and then push capacity to 130 MW by 2005 at the earliest. In the year 2000 the company had a solar output of 15MW.

The expansion plans are being driven by steadily increasing sales figures at home and abroad and the increasing popularity of the 'fully electrified house' concept in Japan that is supported by government subsidies. Clean solar power for domestic dwellings and the development of more advanced products such as lead free soldering on the production line at Kyoto are all adding to solar power's popular profile in the country which generated about 45% of the world's solar power in 2002.

In mid 2003, Tokyo based MSK opened their new 100 MW capacity solar production plant at Nagano that claims to have the world's largest solar module production capacity at a single site. The facility can produce 45,000 solar modules per month and is geared to handling cells of reduced thickness as they move from research to production. In company with Kaneka Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) and architects Taiyo Industries, MSK has introduced the PV-TV building material that transforms an environmentally sound power source by day and a full color screen by night.

Based on amorphous solar technology, the panels are scribed by laser with a series of ultra fine lines which allow 10% of visible light to be transmitted through the panel which is optimal to light a building in cloudy conditions whilst protecting against excessive solar gain. The one meter square panels have a 38 peak watt rating and weigh 20 kilograms and an edge mounted electrical connection. At night a ceiling or floor mounted projector can produce large scale displays formed by the combination of multiple units. PV-TV is laminated in double glass in either 10 mm standard or 13 mm strengthened thickness.

As solar cell production and applications mushroom a timely note of caution has been sounded by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) based on their program of large scale solar energy projects as reported in the Los Angeles Daily News. A review of six major solar installations showed that the DWP got an average of only 45% of the expected wattage. The report says that two panels at the Los Angeles Convention Center generated less that 40% of design capacity (29% and 37%). Experts are investigating whether output shortfalls are a fluke or reflect a broader problem with more than 500 solar installations citywide.

It seems that specifications based on optimal laboratory conditions can see reductions of up to 25% on promised power delivery in the outside world with the effects of shade, excessive heat and location details.

With subsidies anchoring many solar projects and costs per kilowatt hour on sampled installations roughly twice the market average of 40 cents it could be a time for re-calibration as customer demand is still high and last year outpaced funding causing a temporary freeze in DWP incentive funding which has now been increased to $150 million through 2011.

Adjustments to real performance are necessary to ensure the promised progress of the solar industry, which of all the sustainable and renewable technologies, is in many ways nearest to the tenets of appropriate technology expounded in Dr Fritz Schumacher's seminal book published in 1973, "Small is Beautiful - Economics as if people mattered."