Shell/Saint-Gobain to Produce CIS Solar Panels

Shell Erneuerbare Energien GmbH ('Shell') and Saint-Gobain Glass Deutschland GmbH, have announced a joint venture to begin solar power panel manufacturing based on advanced CIS (copper indium di-selenide) technology. The joint venture was recently approved by the European Commission.

The new entity AVANCIS KG will commence construction of the production facilities with operations likely to commence in 2008. The initial annual capacity of the plant will be 20 MW  with options for rapid expansion. The joint venture will combine Shell's CIS technology expertise, supported by eight years of CIS marketing experience, with Saint-Gobain's global and in-depth know-how of glass processing and building material manufacturing.  Graeme Sweeney, Shell's Executive Vice-President of Renewables, Hydrogen and CO2 said: "Based on our R&D experience in Munich, where the laboratory line delivered record 13.5% efficiency, we believe this facility can achieve industry-leading performance amongst thin-film technologies." This is another effort trying to capitalize on the shortage of silicon with a thin-film technology that may be superior in cost to silicon, but which would have had a much harder time cracking into the market were it not for the silicon shortage. CIS is another solar cell technology with advantages very similar to CIGS technology.  Earlier this year Shell sold its silicon cell facilities to concentrate their efforts on CIS.

Comments

[Paul Dietz]

It's a shame indium isn't more abundant. This is going to have a hard time really denting global energy demand unless large new supplies become available.

[Mark Saint-Vincent]

I agree. With so many companies announcing thin-film production intentions, I doubt any of them, especially the late-comers like Shell will succeed unless they are able to secure the material before the others. So many manufactureres chasing a very limited amount of product can only mean higher prices to the consumer.

[Paul Dietz]

It might barely work out that making the indium by transmutation of cadmium could be feasible. A BotE calculation suggests the amount of electricity produced per indium atom in a 1 micron thick CuInSe2 cell over the life of the cell is on the order of 100 million eV. So if there's a source of cheap neutrons, capture on the fairly abundant isotope 114Cd could make 115Cd, which decays to 115In. The 114Cd would have to be separated from 113Cd if thermal neutrons are used, since the capture cross section of the lighter isotope is much higher.

The cheapest source of neutrons may be large H-bomb explosions, but that's probably way too Strangelovian to be acceptable, at least on this planet. Still, it's been proposed in the past (MICE, for example) to use contained thermonuclear explosions to manufacture isotopes in bulk. Sanity was optional in those days, I guess.

[Jeff Becker]

These guys seem to think that indium is not so rare, and that "Indium exists in the earth's crust in quantities approximately three times that of silver".

http://www.indium.com/supply.php

Perhaps it's more a matter of getting at the stuff. I do wonder if the "forecasted demand" mentioned in the above link includes new CIGS solar plants.

[Paul Dietz]

These guys seem to think that indium is not so rare, and that "Indium exists in the earth's crust in quantities approximately three times that of silver".

The problem is that, like silver, extracting it from the crust at average crustal concentrations wouldn't be economical. You need to extract it from ores, and for indium that means secondary extraction from mines that are primarily producing something else. This makes the supply curve highly inelastic, as the price history of indium over the last five years demonstrates.

I think we'll see more indium recycling; according to the USGS mineral summary for indium the manufacturing process for ITO coatings on glass (used in LC displays) wastes 80% of the element. The rest could be recovered, but currently mostly isn't.

[Roger Davis]

PV technology seems to be advancing on a number of different fronts very rapidly. My guess is that by the time these manufacturers start scraping the bottom of the indium barrel they will be well down the road to using different materials entirely. Hopefully they make enough $$ off CIGS to get themselves well-capitalized for the next round of materials which will perhaps be more commonplace. Keep the trees *and* the forest in view, IMHO.

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