JA Solar, one of the big players in the solar industry, is working with Innovalight to commercialize the latter's method for making silicon-ink-based, high-efficiency solar cells, the companies said this week.
Innovalight first got noticed in 2007 for perfecting a process in which it could essentially ink-jet-manufacture solar cells using a proprietary silicon ink it had developed. The solar cells are created by pouring an ink solution incorporated with silicon nanoparticles and then decanting the excess liquid to leave behind a crystalline silicon structure.
This is Innovalight's crystalline silicon solar cell.
(Credit: Innovalight)At the time of the 2007 announcement, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Innovalight claimed its method not only resulted in solar cells that were cheaper to produce by as much as half, but that the crystalline structure resulting from the process made its cells more efficient at converting electricity.
Those claims now appear to be validated.
On Tuesday, Innovalight announced that an independent study of its method by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany confirmed that its silicon ink-based cells "demonstrated a record 18 percent conversion of efficiency."
Shanghai, China-based JA Solar said the process will lower its production cost for this type of solar cell.
"Innovalight's silicon ink in conjunction with JA Solar's leadership in high-volume solar cell manufacturing with demonstrated yield, conversion efficiency, and low production costs, provides a very promising solution to enhance the conversion efficiency of solar cells utilizing our existing solar cell manufacturing lines," Qingtang Jiang, JA Solar's chief technology officer, said in a statement Tuesday.
JA Solar plans to further develop the process at its research and development plant in Yangzhou, a city on China's coast about 630 miles south of Beijing.
Is making machines more efficiently as simple as folding paper cranes? Industrial Origami is betting that its technologies for folding sheet metal will help manufacturers cut costs and waste on the factory floor.
Industrial Origami's metal forming techniques work with existing manufacturing equipment but slash costs by 70 percent, said president and CEO Rick Holman. It offers a software add-on for CAD design systems.
Corner creases called "smiles" are key.
(Credit: Industrial Origami)Industrial Origami focuses on car parts and home appliances as well as heating and air conditioning system. It licenses its fold-and-cut technologies to Whirlpool and Eaton Electric, which makes enclosures for electric equipment.
Key to reducing the amount of materials, joints and fasteners are indentations punched into the folding edges of the metal. Shaped like an upturned mouth, these "smile" shapes also help the metal forms to bear weight, according to Industrial Origami.
The San Francisco-based company, which presented at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco Tuesday, is seeking to add $10 million to the $15 million it has already raised.
Update: Suntech Power Holdings, an aggressive, rising star in the solar world, said in a conference call yesterday that it hopes to build plants in the U.S. to help it break into the market here.
"We are currently in discussion with the governors of three different states who have been recruiting us to build factories," said Roger Efird, president of Suntech America, the company's U.S. subsidiary, according to a report on Greentech Media. Efird was speaking on a conference call for the Solar Energy Industries Association. More details will likely emerge on November 15 when Suntech reports earnings.
The factories could employ up to 1,000 people in the states in the next few years, Efird reportedly said.
Update: In a phone interview with News.com, chief strategy officer Steve Chan said that they company is in the decision making stage. "The question is how to get to the point where the costs make sense," he said. Suntech might not move to the stage where construction begins for one to two years.
Earlier this week, green drywall maker Serious Materials raised $50 million to build factories in the U.S.
U.S. factories will also let Suntech compete in what many believe will be the largest solar market in the future. The company right now sells most of its products to Europe. Five years ago, Suntech was an asterisk. Now, it is the third largest producer of solar cells in the world and one of the fastest growing. It benefits from cheap Chinese labor, but also depth in research and development (the science behind its panels came out of the University of New South Wales), strong ties to equipment makers, and volume discounts on silicon. Executives in China make less too: there probably aren't 10 people in the company who make more than $200,000, said Chan earlier this year.
European and Japanese manufacturers have trouble competing on price, and Chinese manufacturers have trouble keeping up with their quality.
U.S. factories, though, will challenge the company's low cost position, as Chan noted. Suntech, though is testing out different strategies to get around this. One idea: Suntech is developing its own manufacturing equipment that could reduce costs.
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