Suntech Begins Construction of Thin-film Facilities

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), China's largest manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, recently announced that it has begun construction on a thin film R&D and manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China. The first phase of the new plant is expected to begin operation in 2008 reaching 50MW of thin film solar cell production capacity in 2009.

Suntech's thin film module production will be based on technology that deposits amorphous and micro-crystalline silicon thin film on glass substrate. The product will use less than 2% of the silicon required to manufacture equivalent crystalline silicon PV products. Suntech currently projects that the thin film modules will have a solar conversion efficiency of 6% to 9% and an initial production cost of approximately $1.20 per watt (based on 6% solar conversion efficiency), which is forecasted to continue to decline as both production scale and conversion efficiencies increase. The thin film modules will be nearly 6 square meters in size, which would make the balance of system installation costs of Suntech's thin film solution significantly lower than other PV solutions.

"After having acquired MSK, one of the industry leaders in the building integrated photovoltaic products (BIPV) space, we were very pleased to see that there is both a strong and long term global sales market for these products, especially thin film PV modules. We plan to combine our thin film product with MSK's BIPV product thereby capturing a greater portion of the PV value chain in a higher margin, higher ASP and higher value added product segment," said Dr. Zhengrong Shi Suntech's Chairman and CEO.

Suntech recent letter of intent with U.S.-based Open Energy to further BIPV initiatives is intended to expand BIPV sales of each company which will be furthered by Suntech's thin film initiatives. As part of the collaboration, Suntech will manufacture Open Energy's SolarSave(R) PV Tiles and jointly promote BIPV products in the North American market.

Expect stiff competition from this rapidly growing producer. to reiterate from a recent post: Last year, China passed the United States to become the world’s third largest producer of the cells—trailing only Germany and Japan.

Comments

[Gautam K Das]

Its a green news that may lead us towards more and more replacement of black energy.

Best Regards
Gautam

[Chandranshu Pandya]

6% efficiency is not enough to go for any global business.With costs of PV cells going down and higher efficiencies getting developed, the next generation manufacture of PV cells will, I am sure, be doing much better.

[Ken]

Although 6% is a lot less than the conversion efficiency of conventional silicon wafer cells, if it's well below the cost in output terms and (as is often the case) there is plenty of available space for installation, it could prove popular. Still, there are thin film technologies in the pipeline that can deliver much better conversion efficiencies (Crystalline Silicon on Glass or Sliver Cells for example). How much they'll cost to produce, mount, maintain verses output, spread over effective working life is the real question.

[Solar in China]

Sinocome in China began to build their amorphous solar cell factory in Jilin in late 2006, and plans to achieve a production capacity of 100 megawatts in 2007 and 500 MW by 2009.

And Sinocome claims that they have some new advanced amorphous solar cell technologies developped by themselves.

Welcome to my blog to see more information about the solar energy industry in China.

http://solar-in-china.blogspot.com

[Kit P]

Thanks “Solar in China” for the reminder. I need to trouble shoot my solar lighting system. There are no street lights where I live (bragging not complaining). The previous owner of my house has installed enough outdoor lighting to allow me to signal the space lab in Morse code. So I decided to put in some decorative solar lights. They looked nice too.

Six months later none of them work. Now that we are in the part of the year where it is dark going and coming, it would useful if they worked. The first one failed because it was not properly sealed and rain water. One grew legs and did not survive Halloween. The other are not getting enough sun or the batteries are dead.

While I am gripping about the cheap stuff I buy at Harbor Freight, the battery charger for my cordless drills keeps dying. Usually they last until they out of warranty, but the last two lasted less than a day. For those who think lack of moving parts ensure longevity, think again.

For the slow learners here, capacity to build solar and conversion efficiency is meaningless if the capacity factor is zero.

[Gerald L.Harrison]

Just an editorial comment on one of your articles on solar cells. Please not the correct spelling "metre" as in watts per metre. The correct spelling has been set by international convention some time in 1974. "Meter" is the name of a meauring instrument.

[lift equipment rental]

I agree with Pandya, 6% efficiency is not enough to go for any global business.

James Ferris

[forklift equipment]

With costs of PV cells going down and higher efficiencies getting developed, the next generation manufacture of PV cells will be doing much better.

Keith

[Bucket Trucks]

We should be making these in the US.

[Account Deleted]

Assessing the Construction Environmental Impacts is one of the most important steps in reviewing an environmental plan for new construction. This is also an eco friendly method to construct any home.

[davek]

This might be a late post, but I used to work in the thin film industry for 12 years in Palo Alto California. Maybe some of you heard of it. Southwall Technogies. Some products was made for defense and most of the products to went to Eroupe. Just sharing my info.