Weekly Intelligence Brief

IN-DEPTH: Reducing costs by focusing on gases and materials

8 May 2009

Air Liquide believes that innovation is needed to reduce materials costs.

By Thin Film Today staff writer

The seasonal lull for panel installation along with the sudden decrease in availability for financing slowing expansions and investments has only exacerbated the conditions and caused overcapacity for companies in the thin-film solar sector.

Some companies have indicated that they are “cautiously optimistic” about their current negotiations.

From a company like Air Liquide’s perspective, which has a strong presence in this sector, its worldwide director - photovoltaic business, Olivier Blachier, has observed three major transformation developments in the recent months. These are:

·         The race to decrease the thin film segment costs per Wp has been at the same pace as in the case of c-Si cells. It is becoming a significant factor in most supply chain or investment decisions made by Air Liquide’s customers. No new manufacturing investments can now be made without demonstrating that these solar cells can be produced at a cost equal to or lower than the “best-in-class” (i.e.$1-1,2/Wp in the short-term, and at least 20 percent lower by 2012).

·         In the Si thin film segment, in particular, the ability to access the downstream demand in BIPV, in solar farm systems installation or to enter into mini-plants LCOE contracts, is essential to load your manufacturing fab and to then lower thin film solar cells fab costs base. To that extent, major moves are being considered by large-scale thin film manufacturers to partner with downstream “utility” companies, for instance.

·         In these times of credit constraints, very few companies can truly raise enough equity to fund new large-scale thin film manufacturing projects. This is resulting in a selection “from the top” where only existing players with a track record in generating solid financial returns in solar, or new players funded by utilities or large-scale investment funds can now access the level of capital needed for such fabs. This trend will in turn lead to further consolidation and favour large existing players.

 
Trends in Europe

Referring to pacts between ENEL and Sharp, or the equity participation by E.ON, EDF NE, Total-Suez and others in new solar manufacturing projects, Blachier said the industry is witnessing an alignment of utility companies or of regional electricity producers’ interests with panel manufacturers.

“We have also seen the difficulties experienced by the early thin film manufacturers to truly stabilise their production process, achieve adequate conversion efficiencies, and ramp their fabs to adequate loading justifying proper return on capital employed for their investments,” said Blachier.

He added that uncertainty around the true costs per Wp benefits of converting from single junction technology to tandem or triple-junctions is another issue to be resolved.

For its part, Air Liquide is now engaged in many preliminary discussions in Southern Europe and in the Mediterranean basin with manufacturers who are interested in moving into the solar PV segment, attracted by the need for higher energy-independence in these regions.

Evolving role

Over the last two years, Air Liquide has experienced a globalisation of the demand, as well as a shift towards offering more tailored ramp-up solutions to match demands for high-volume of gases and materials, together with the safe handling, storage and delivery of new molecules.

Blachier highlighted that the ever-increasing volume demands for Silane, Fluorinated gases, dopant materials, and precursors is stretching the entire gases industry supply chain.

He said it is not necessarily practical to locally produce all these materials (with the exception of carrier gases and gases separated from the air).

“Silane for example, can be manufactured at a much lower-cost when it is produced together with a Mono-Silane-based Poly-Silicon manufacturing plant in Canada, US, Russia, China, or in Nordic countries, and then transported safely in large-containers,” he added.

At the same time, he admits that innovation is needed to lower materials costs of the offering of its customers and to find new molecules capable of enhancing these thin film process efficiencies.

The company has set an objective to continue lowering its direct materials costs per Wp by a minimum of five percent per year over the next five years.

“Recovery or higher utilisation of materials can also bring a significant step-change in the cost structure of our customers,” added Blachier. “Moreover, we believe that gaseous and liquid precursors can help tremendously improve the throughput and conversion efficiency of the solar cells being manufactured, thus representing another potential for an additional >15 percent total solar cells costs per Wp reduction.”

For Si thin film, for example, possible breakthrough in deposition and cleaning technologies is anticipated, which will in turn increase throughput and efficiency of the line. These are likely to be realised through new additives and by optimising the film growth as well as chamber cleaning. Doping and TCO film growth is another area of major innovation where new precursors or layers are being tested to demonstrate significant CE improvements. Finally, new molecules are being considered to improve passivation, to enhance the transparency of the films, its AR or trapping properties.

“All these trends are using gases or precursors developed by materials companies, which are being tested in OEM or research institute labs. These innovations are all part of Air Liquide costs per Wp roadmap, which we are sharing with our key customers, and which is setting us apart from a normal “industrial gas company”,” said Blachier.

Utilisation rates

Blachier highlighted that currently most Si thin film fabs are running at low utilisation rates, and thus are not reaching the costs/Wp targets they had set themselves; moreover, cell efficiencies at 6,5 percent for a-Si or eight percent for tandem junction will not necessarily allow these players to compete effectively in the long-term. It is therefore essential for these customers to increase line throughputs and to find ways to increase film properties, so as to increase the conversion efficiency of their lines, thereby lowering costs.

One of the issues the industry is also facing is the limited three-way technology collaborations between the OEMs, major end-users and material suppliers (glass or materials). This is an area where a much better alignment is needed so that the desire to lower costs is truly realised and shared between glass/substrates, materials and OEMs, he added.

 
Thin Film Solar Summit Europe 2009

Olivier Blachier, worldwide director - photovoltaic business, Air Liquide is scheduled to speak at the forthcoming Thin Film Solar Summit Europe, in Berlin this year (May 19-20).

For information, click here: http://www.thinfilmtoday.com/eu/agenda.shtml

Or Contact: Joshua Bull at +44 (0) 207 3757227 or email josh@cpvtoday.com