by Dr. Paula Doe, Contributing Editor, Solid-State Technology

April 24, 2008 – What country surpassed perennial solar leader Japan in photovoltaic production last year, turning out more than 1GW of solar cells? That would be China, where a new crowd of suppliers also plans to ramp production of 3GW in thin film cells over the next two years. And Asia is just getting started. Major PV makers in Taiwan plan to increase capacity to more than 2GW, those in India to 1GW, by 2010, according to reports from Solid State Technology partner Nikkei Microdevices and the Japanese consultancy Tech Biz, based in part on data from the regional solar industry associations. By way of comparison, Solarbuzz reports worldwide solar production last year totaled about 3.4GW.

Though naturally not all these ambitious plans will actually result in funded factories, there’s a crowd of new entrants rushing to try, and a growing infrastructure to support them across Asia.

China now boasts more than 100 solar module makers, and more than 500 supporting suppliers of materials and equipment. Despite the country’s big domestic energy demand, most of the production is so far exported to Europe. Indeed China’s own roadmap for reducing its carbon emissions aim at only 300MW of domestic energy production from solar by 2010. Eight Chinese solar companies listed on overseas markets now claim some 1.5GW of installed capacity, paced by Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., with 540KW installed and actual production of ~365KW in 2007.

Coming next is a proliferation of thin-film facilities. At least ten companies are already in production of thin film solar, including Golden Sun (Fujian) Solar Technic Co. Ltd., which aims to produce 430KW of amorphous silicon tandem cells this year, and 1GW in 2010, using technology it developed with a Chinese university. Another thirty suppliers plan to start thin-film solar production this year or next, mostly by purchasing turnkey amorphous silicon thin-film lines from suppliers Applied Materials, Ulvac, or Oerlikon Blazers Ltd. Suntech plans to start its first thin-film production in June, with 60MW planned for this year and 400MW by 2010. The Xinao Group Co. Ltd. aims to ramp production on its Applied Materials line to 500MW by 2010.

Other Chinese companies boast advanced technology of their own. China Sunergy Co. Ltd. shipped the first of its high-efficiency cells in January, which it says average 17.5% conversion efficiency in volume production. This selective emitter technology is based on research by Sunergy scientists Jianhua Zhao and Aihau Wang, who reported 24.7% efficiency from their 4cm² PERL cell in 1999. Customer ALEO Solar in Germany has contracted for 40MW of the cells for its modules. Sunergy says it has converted one of its production lines to the improved process so far, and is adding four more, for 320MW capacity by 3Q08.

Taiwan is expecting a solar boom as well over the next couple of years. That country’s top ten producers altogether had roughly 450MW of combined total capacity installed as of late 2007. But this year and next, leading suppliers Motech Industries Inc., E-TON Solar Tech, and Gintech Energy Corp. each plan to expand to 550MW to 600MW. Eight other companies are starting amorphous thin-film tandem cell production, bringing on close to 200MW of additional capacity this year, and aiming at 500MW in 2-3 years (see Figure 1). Most aggressive in the near term is Sun Well Solar Corp., using Oerlikon Solar equipment for a 40MW line this year and expanding to 60MW in 2009. Taiwan’s photovoltaic industry association had 131 members by the end of last year, including 28 solar cell makers, 15 module makers, seven silicon suppliers, and 28 solar equipment makers.

Fig. 1: Planned solar capacity in Taiwan. (Source: Taiwan Photovoltaic Industry Association, Tech Biz, Nikkei Microdevices)

India has its share of companies ramping solar production as well, including a domestic equipment supplier that claims to offer a complete thin film line and a new domestic supplier of polysilicon. Domestic demand helps to spur a local market in India, where demand for electricity runs about 10% higher than available supply.

India produced solar modules to generate 80MW of power in 2007, and expects to produce 350MW by 2012, according to the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science — but with the current ramp-up, that’s looking far too low. Tata BP Solar India now has 50MW capacity, and plans 300MW by 2010. Optical disc maker Moser Baer Photo Voltaic Ltd. entered the market last spring and now has 40MW of capacity, and plans for 500MW by 2010. The country’s largest industrial group, Reliance, is planning to start production. Startup Solar Semiconductor, founded last year by a technologist returning from the US, started production of solar modules with 30MW, and now plans to 130MW this year, aiming to start shipping modules to the US from its new 60MW plant in Mexico by midyear. Established local solar producer Maharishi Solar Technology, which makes 2.5MW of modules, as well as basic gear like solar lanterns and pumps for areas without electricity, now plans to expand to 40MW — and ramp its new 100T capacity polysilicon plant by the end of this year.

Supporting this market is Indian equipment maker Hind High Vacuum (HHV), which says it plans to offer a turnkey thin-film solar line for about half the price of other suppliers (about $8M for a 7MW line). The local company makes its own laminator, plasma CVD tool, and magnetron sputtering equipment (see Figure 2), and plans to source cleaning and laser scribing tools from other Indian suppliers. It says its process delivers cells of 6.5% efficiency on 30cm² substrates in the lab, but it plans to open its own solar cell plant this fall to demonstrate the production technology on 1m² glass. — P.D.

Figure 2: India’s Hind High Vacuum offers its own turnkey thin film solar line. (Source: Nikkei Microdevices)

“Chindia” ramps solar capacity

Company………………………….Country……….Capacity in 2007 (MW)…..Planned capacity (MW)