Solar Manufactures increase productivity

Solar Manufactures increase productivity

24 Oct 07 | General Business, Solar Electric

Reading several articles about PV production and increases in silicon feed stock. The outlook is good that PV panels will be more abundant in the next few years, which will hopefully lead to some price reductions or at least price stabilization. From Evergreen Solar:

The Quad furnace technology will be used in Evergreen’s new 75 megawatt factory in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The furnace uses a String Ribbon process in which a set of parallel strings are pulled continuously through a small molten pool of silicon inside a custom furnace. A thin “ribbon” is created between the two strings as the silicon cools and re-crystallizes. The ribbon is then cut into wafers, which are converted into solar cells and used in the production of solar panels — all under one roof. Evergreen’s current String Ribbon technology produces two ribbons at one time, while the Quad creates four ribbons simultaneously.

Kyocera has also stepped up production by building new production facilities in several countries:

In order to respond to increasing demand, Kyocera focused on research to improve quality , when enduring a shortage of silicon. The Company has now secured a stable supply of silicon materials from several suppliers, and accordingly plans to expand manufacturing facilities in stages and steadily increase production.

Kyocera has already established local production and supply systems for solar modules in Japan, Europe, the United States and China, the four largest markets in the world, to respond rapid rise of demand in these areas. Along with the phased increase of solar cell production to 500MW, enabled by the stable supply of silicon materials, new factory wings will be constructed and additional manufacturing facilities will be installed at each of the four bases. Capital investments amounting to about 10 billion yen in total will be made for expansion and improvement of production systems in order to achieve 500MW annual production output in the end of March 2011.

China has also been stepping up it’s PV production. The Chinese government has plans for several large PV power stations in the north western desert regions. Several Chinese manufactures have begun to increase production to meet this demand, as well as to sell overseas.

Integrated photovoltaic (PV) product manufacturer Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd announced it has completed the first stage of its Phase III 500MW manufacturing expansion plan.

The newly finished production lines add 100MW of total production capacity of polysilicon wafers, PV cells and PV modules. Yingli started trial production of polysilicon ingots from the new lines on June 1 and following detailed testing and certain modifications, recently launched production at full capacity.

Provided the economic and political conditions remain stable, this should be a boon to the growing PV industry here in the US. If oil prices continue to climb toward the $100.00 dollar per barrel mark, there may be a shortage of qualified solar installers.

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