BP Solar today announced that it has begun constructing two mega cell plants, one at its European headquarters in Tres Cantos, Madrid and the second at its joint venture facility, Tata BP Solar, in Bangalore, India.
For phase 1 of the Madrid expansion, BP Solar is aiming to expand its annual cell capacity from 55 MW to around 300 MW. The Bangalore expansion could add another 300 MW to BP Solar's total capacity.
The new cell lines use state-of-the-art screen printing technology,much of it proprietary to BP Solar. By fully automating wafer handling,the lines will be able to handle the very thinnest of wafers available and ensuring the highest possible quality.
"The announcement of the two mega cell plants cements BP Solar's commitment to maintain a market leadership position in PV" said Lee Edwards, BP Solar's CEO. "The new cell technologies we are using, our intellectual property in casting with Mono2 and the contracts we have signed to secure preferential access to metallurgical grade silicon are all important steps towards our goal of offering customers PV generated electricity on a par with the cost of conventional grid supplied electricity."
This announcement brings BP's total announced capacity to 690 MW, second behind Sharp.
Sharp currently has three expansions underway which will bring their capacity to 820 MW per year.
These plants will bring us closer to being able to produce PV power at costs nearer that of conventional electricity. Several pundits have said that when production capacity reaches 1 GW at a single facility solar PV will be competitive with conventional electricity. Between the proprietary processes of several producers and the experience and expertise that AMD AMAT is bringing to the field, reaching this goal is approaching faster than I had expected.
do you mean AMAT rather than AMD? YES
Posted by: Rod | March 23, 2007 at 11:14 AM
The SolarWorld facility announced for Hillsboro, Oregon is going to be a 500 MW/year facility, so we're getting closer to the 1 GW/year capacity you mentioned (about half way to be exact!). See here for more
Jesse Jenkins
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http://watthead.blogspot.com
Posted by: Watthead | March 23, 2007 at 02:35 PM
Solar energy makes me happy. I would to see more manufacturing in the United States. I would love to see us be producers and users of Solar Energy. Less dependence on other counties for our energy needs. If the Us government is going to supply funds for BP to generate PV they should recipracate by creating the means of production in the USA. Why are we giving them money to help shop jobs and energy creation to other parts of the world?
How much money did BP get in this last round of cash incentives? I'm not sure but I think it was 40 million or more?
If we incenives it we should have the manufacturing and jobs in the USA!
Thomas Foreman.
Posted by: Thomas Foreman | March 23, 2007 at 04:13 PM
Well NanoSolar is pretty far along with their San Jose California CIGS thinfilm plant.
It's gonna manufacture 430MW of solar per year.
Cool part about CIGS thinfilm is that
1. The Capital Cost is about 10x less
2. The Materials Cost is about 10x less
3. The Labor Cost is comprable to automated printing newspapers.
Sure CIGS thinfilm is only about 10% effecient. But the cost is so low :P
But whats more, once they get those quantum dots worked out. CIGS thinfilm may be able to match solar thermal in solar effeciency.
Posted by: GreyFlcn | March 24, 2007 at 02:36 AM
I love solar power I think over the next few years it's going to be exploding even more... as performance of solar panels goes up people are going to be adopting it everywhere they can... after all it's free energy :) BTW here is more solar power information -> Solar Power
Posted by: Bart | April 04, 2007 at 04:05 PM
A very informative pst. I really learned something from your post. Thank you for sharing. Solar power is little expensive it produce very cheap energy and its for long time.
Posted by: mega mass 2000 | May 29, 2010 at 02:58 AM
Technology is much advanced now and going so far away of what we ever dream off.
OBDII scanner
Posted by: OBDII scanner | May 19, 2011 at 01:09 PM
Is Sharp associated with BP?
Posted by: Fashion Magazines | December 14, 2011 at 05:11 PM