CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--General Electric plans to give its solar business a charge within two years by introducing panels with the same solar cell material used by industry cost leader First Solar.
In 2011, the energy giant expects to produce solar panels made with cadmium telluride, a thin-film solar cell material, Michael Idelchik, vice president of advanced technologies at GE Global Research, said here Wednesday at the EmTech conference. The company now sells solar panels that use silicon solar cells, but its long-term bet is on thin-film--and specifically cadmium telluride--because it offers the cheapest cost per watt, he said.
Cadmium telluride solar panels from First Solar installed in Berkeley, Calif.
(Credit: SolarCity)Last year, GE's energy division took a majority stake in Golden, Colo.-based PrimeStar Solar, for its cadmium telluride cell technology. GE is now developing a product around that aimed at utility and commercial customers.
Solar at GE is a relatively small part of its sprawling energy portfolio, which covers everything from nuclear power plants to natural gas turbines. But GE expects that solar has the potential to grow rapidly, as its multibillion-dollar wind business has done over the past five years.
"Solar is definitely the next wind for us. It's not there yet, but it's moving very rapidly," Idelchik said. Solar is more expensive than wind right now, but he said that GE expects renewable energy mandates to help drive growth and bring costs down.
Thin-film solar cells offer lower production costs than the incumbent silicon because thin-film cells use far less material. Over the past five years, several solar companies have formed to make thin-film cells from a combination copper, indium, gallium, and selenide (CIGS), which are still not in the market in high volumes. GE's cells will be made from a compound of cadmium and tellurium.
Silicon cells are durable and more efficient at converting sunlight to electricity than thin-film solar cells. The most efficient commercial silicon cells can convert over 20 percent of sunlight to electricity. But GE Research projects that it can boost the efficiency of cadmium telluride to 12 percent efficiency and potentially higher, Idelchik said.
"We are excited about it because it can produce in diffuse light," he said. "The module (panel) life is 20 years--that's what the customer wants. It has the right production costs and right efficiency target."
Asked how its cadmium telluride products will differ from First Solar's, Idelchik answered only briefly that GE's device would be more "flexible for customers" in terms of installation and operation.
During his presentation, Idelchik said that GE is looking at ways of managing an entire solar array in a large installation built by a utility or commercial customer.
After his talk, he said that GE is developing technology to recycle solar cell material, as cadmium is a very toxic if it enters the environment.
BioSolar has filed a patent application for a new type of backing for photovoltaic cells.
A backsheet is the bottom layer of a photovoltaic cell used by solar manufacturers to protect the cell from moisture, temperature fluctuations, and the elements.
BioSolar's BioBacksheet-A, a new addition to the company's line of backsheets, consists of a sheet of aluminum foil sandwiched between two layers of polymer made from renewable plant sources. The aluminum used in the sheets is also 100 percent recyclable.
The company announced that it was developing plant-based plastics for solar-cell components, which included the use of cotton and castor beans, in August 2008.
BioSolar's biomass backsheets for solar cells will work with existing industrial manufacturing machines.
(Credit: BioSolar)The BioBacksheet-A can meet the requirement of thin-film photovoltaics "to have a water vapor transmissions rate of nearly zero," according to BioSolar.
"BioSolar's goal is to reduce the costs of solar modules and make solar energy greener by replacing petroleum-based module components with bio-based materials made from renewable plant sources," David Lee, CEO of BioSolar, said in a statement.
The company is also trying to make it easy for interested solar manufacturers to make the switch from petroleum-based components. BioSolar's rolls of biomass backsheets can be used with existing industrial machines, according to the company.
Correction at 7:20 a.m. PDT June 23: The energy production of the tiles has been fixed. The tiles can generate 860 kilowatt hours per square (or per 100 square feet) annually in an area with "5.8 peak sun hours" per day.
Solé Power Tile system developed for US Tile by SRS Energy integrates seamlessly with its terra-cotta counterparts.
(Credit: SRS Energy)Will a better aesthetic tempt more people into going solar? SRS Energy is betting on it.
The company has partnered with US Tile, a leading manufacturer of Spanish, slate, and shake roof tiles, to design solar panels with the exact same shapes as their clay counterparts.
The result is solar tiles that can be seamlessly integrated with the terra-cotta tiles on your roof. Instead of the solar panels being on your roof, your solar panels are the roof. Instead of consumers going solar as aftermarket adaptation, the Philadelphia-based company hopes that solar will become part of the architecture and building of residences and commercial properties.
BIPV (building-integrated photovoltaics) have been around for a while, but many of them fail to visually blend in with the existing architecture. SRS Energy is trying to improve that by partnering with roofing companies to replicate existing roof tile designs into thin-film solar panel counterparts.
The Solé Power Tile system was unveiled at American Institute of Architects 2009 National Convention and Design Exposition this past May at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. On June 15, SRS Energy unveiled one of the first commercial buildings to implement the Solé Power Tile system. The Swiss chalet-like building is Zwahlen's Ice Cream & Chocolate Company, a family-run ice cream parlor in Audubon, Penn., owned by SRS Energy's CEO Marty Low.
US Tile's Solé Power Tile system will begin to be installed in homes this November 2009 by contractors that have taken the company's Solé certification class, the first of which will be held this July, according to Abby Nessa Feinstein, director of marketing for SRS Energy.
The company plans to move into other U.S. and European markets in 2010.
The look of the tiles aside, what about solar efficiency? That's where consumers will have to think about what's most important to them. The Solé Power Tile system, which is warranted for 20 years to generate electricity at a rate of 80 percent of capacity, incorporates triple-junction amorphous solar cells produced by Uni-Solar.
Cell efficiency for the tiles is between 8 percent and 10 percent, according to Feinstein.
That puts it slightly below what others in thin-film photovoltaics have been getting. Global Solar, for example, has said its existing flexible CIGS cells convert about 10 percent of sunlight into electricity, and has plans to get to 13 percent to 14 percent soon. It's also obviously far behind the 20 percent efficiency achieved by efficient traditional silicon solar panels.
Feinstein says the SRS Energy system's overall efficiency makes up for the difference in sunlight to electricity conversion figures.
"If a homeowner bought 4kW of crystalline silicon panels and then 4KW of the Solé US Tiles, they will get 10 to 15 percent more output in terms of a KWh (kilowatt hour) on their electricity," said Feinstein.
"You have three layers of semiconductor material and so it is essentially less picky about the light it converts into electricity so whereas crystalline starts and stops converting between 10 (a.m.) and 4 p.m., our tech will wake up earlier and work later. It converts a larger spectrum of light into electricity. It has less sensitivity to heat, most start to degrade in performance as they get hotter. Our tiles get less hot because the modular is curved and with any curved tile you have air beneath keeping them cooler," she said.
SRS Energy's statistics say the average homeowner with Solé Power Tiles can get 860 kilowatt hours per square (or per 100 square feet) annually in an area with "5.8 peak sun hours" per day.
Zwahlen's Ice Cream & Chocolate Company sporting Solé Power Tiles.
(Credit: SRS Energy)Solyndra, a start-up making thin-film photovoltaic systems, has secured $600 million in funding.
It's additionally secured $1.2 billion in contracts from clients in the U.S. and Europe, the Fremont, Calif.-based company revealed Tuesday.
What start-up gets that kind of funding and client promise? Basically, one that's invented thin-film solar panels shaped like old-school fluorescent lightbulbs.
Solyndra's series of tubes offer a unique angle on solar power.
(Credit: Solyndra)Since 2005, Solyndra has quietly been developing a proprietary CIGS-based thin film photovoltaic (PV) system and a staff of more than 500 employees.
CIGS is a material that includes a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide. It's now being used by quite a number of companies to make thin-film solar cells among other things.
Solyndra's cylindrical PV panels don't have to be spaced to leave room for rotation toward the sun as with flat solar panels. The panels are actually rows of cylindrical tubes which are installed horizontally and close to one another.
The tubes can "capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse, and reflected sunlight into electricity," according to Solyndra.
Solyndra panels consist of tubes that can absorb sunlight from all angles.
(Credit: Solyndar)The company also says that because of this unique shape and mounting system, more productive solar surface area can be packed onto one roof than with conventionally shaped panels. Subsequently, its system is able to generate "significantly more solar electricity on an annual basis" compared with flat panels, according to the company.
Because Solyndra's tube panels are lighter and allow wind to pass through them easily, there is less construction needed in terms of rooftop anchoring or shoring up a roof for significant weight-bearing. Because of this, according to Solyndra, its system is significantly cheaper to install than flat-panel systems
While solar power may not be considered the complete solution to U.S. energy woes, many commercial, industrial, and public facilities are looking at using solar photovoltaic systems as a supplement to their facilities' energy diets. In April, for example, the landmark Staples Center in Los Angeles announced it will be covering its 24,196-foot roof with photovoltaic modules.
Thin-film solar cells, particularly CIGS panels, have been attracting a lot of attention and funding. SoloPower, NanoSolar, and Ava Solar are thin-film solar companies that have announced funding in the hundreds of millions over the last few months. Even IBM is getting into CIGS solar cells through a partnership with a Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturer.
Solyndra's funding comes from a mix of venture capital and private equity investments totaling $600 million to date. Solyndra investors include Virgin Green Fund, the Abu Dhabi-based Masdar, Rockport Capital Partners, and Argonaut Capital, according to a company spokeswoman.
The company has already been expanding its current plant, Venture Beat reported early Tuesday morning.
Solyndra counts Solar Power, the company contracted to do the Staples Center, and Phoenix Solar, a large solar power integration company in Europe, among its satisfied customers.
"By eliminating the need for roof-penetrating mounts and wind ballasts, PV arrays with Solyndra panels can be installed with one-third the labor, in one-third of the time, at one-half the cost. For commercial rooftops, PV module installation time can now be measured in days, not weeks. For flat commercial rooftops this is game-changing technology," Manfred Bachler, chief technical officer at Phoenix Solar, said in a statement.
If you need more proof that thin-film solar cells is where the action is going, take a look at the money flow.
SoloPower is raising almost $200 million to ramp up manufacturing of its thin-film solar cells, according to a report in VentureWire picked up by other media outlets.
A diagram showing SoloPower's roll-to-roll solar cell manufacturing process.
(Credit: SoloPower)The San Jose, Calif.-based company makes cells from CIGS, a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide which a number of solar companies are betting can undercut traditional crystalline silicon.
Thin-film solar cells, from CIGS or other materials, are less efficient at converting sunlight to electricity but use far less material than silicon, making it potentially cheaper.
CIGS cells are also flexible, enabling things like solar rooftop shingles. At the same time, fabricating cells with that combination of materials has been fraught with technical challenges.
SoloPower's hefty funding is the latest to pour into thin-film CIGS solar start-ups.
NanoSolar last month disclosed that it has raised $300 million, bringing its total funding to about half a billion dollars.
Another thin-film start-up, Ava Solar, raised $104 million in equity last week to make cells from cadmium telluride like high-flier First Solar. CIGS maker Miasole is said to be seeking to raise an additional $200 million as well.
These relatively young companies are taking in a lot of money, when compared to companies specializing in things like smart grids. But to be competitive on cost, solar companies need to manufacture high volumes of cells, and building these facilities requires large capital investment.
SoloPower's technology is a roll-to-roll manufacturing process in which CIGS cells are layered on a flexible substrate. It layers the cells through electroplating, rather than sputtering, which is the technique used by hard-drive manufacturers to layer on magnetic material.
SoloPower's series B venture round in July of this year raised $30 million.
A recent report by Greentech Media and the Prometheus Institute forecast thin-film production to double in each of the next three years, with CIGS being the most "exciting yet elusive."
The study forecast that the thin-film cells will cost $1.40 per watt or less, with a 50 percent gross margin, while silicon cells manufacturers' margins could be as small as 15 percent.
Intel's venture capital arm, Intel Capital, on Wednesday said it has invested in German thin-film solar cell manufacturer Sulfurcell.
Intel Capital led the $133.7 million (85 million euro) round with a $37.7 million contribution. The money will be used to expand the company's existing production, which started in 2005.
A module using Sulfurcell's CIGS thin-film solar cells.
(Credit: Sulfurcell)The announcement follows the spin-off last month of SpectraWatt, a manufacturer of silicon solar cells, from Intel.
Sulfurcell, by contrast, is an expert in thin-film solar cells made from a combination of materials in the CIS/CIGSe (Copper-Indium-Sulfide/Selenide) family of chemicals. The company was spun out of Hahn-Meitner-Institut, a Berlin-based research institute specializing in thin-film photovoltaics.
Intel Capital's clean-tech strategy is to invest in a number of different areas including solar, energy efficiency, power generation and storage, and transportation.
Chip rival IBM is also moving into the thin-film solar cell arena through a manufacturing partnership with Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK).
Thin-film cells, particularly those made from CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, and selenide), are one of the hottest areas of clean-tech investment.
Because they use much less material than silicon, they can be more cost-effective on a price-per-watt basis.
That's not because it's easy, or even because it's a good idea to try, but when well over a billion dollars in investment pours into a given technology, something is bound to come out the other side - eventually. A seductively high efficiency potential technology with very low potential materials costs, CIGS has been just over the horizon for a decade or more, but has enjoyed a huge influx of capital and increase in the number of programs chasing in over the last 5 years. Similar to other solar thin film technologies, device complexity, effective yield, throughput, and process control issues are always the bugaboo.
Given its seductivenes, its somewhat capricious nature, and the siren filled history of the technology, perhaps we should think of CIGS like a woman, and all men need a few rules of thumb to keep in mind before we jump in. Here are mine (for CIGS, not women):
Number one, like most thin film technologies, $100 mm in investment is the ante up to play the game. Just because you spend it doesn't mean you get real product out, and with CIGS, you tend not to know whether anything is workable until oh, say $50 to $100 mm is already spent.
Number two, what you think you know, you don't. Until the pilot plant has been operating for a few years, companies generally really underestimate what they don't know.
Number three, remember those experiments and great idea you sold your investors on, the hard part is not there, the hard (read risky) part is ALL in the "it's just engineering" end of the scale up process you told the investors was "fairly straightforward". This isn't IT, it's deposition with a very commoditized end product.
Number four, whatever the projection as far as timing, add 3 years, maybe 5. I'm not kidding here, I said years.
Number five, when the words "fast", "roll to roll", "reel to reel" or anything else equating to speed in the process are in the pitch deck, translate that to read excruciatingly slow in the development timeline, and lots of "issues" popping up in those nasty yield and process control areas.
Number six, when investing, be very careful about that "yield" number and the "capacity" numbers they made up based on it. All thin film development companies keep "little black books" with the data and charts on every process run they've ever made. Read every single one of those charts, and ask lots of stupid questions about why only 4% of the total square footage produced is above 6% efficiency in run XYZ. Think in terms of "effective total average yield". That's where the problems are hiding.
CIGS watchers have a number of darlings to follow. There's Miasole, which now under new management is rumored to have substantially tightened down its development discipline to take it's shot, Nanosolar, another Silicon Valley venture darling that has been described by many observers along the lines of, "never met hype they didn't like", but with a seductively low cost printable process if they can get it to work, Solyndra, the "stealth" company with the big sign on I-880, Heliovolt, the Texas-based hot CIGS deal of last year, which burst on to the fundraising scene on the back of it's still extremely early stage "FASST" technology. And those are just the largest of the US based venture backed deals, without including Honda, IBM, DayStar, Ascent Solar, Solopower, and literally dozens upon dozens of others around the world with significant backing (though all at a very, very early stage). Wikipedia has a decent cut at a list, though by no stretch of the imagination comprehensive.
My best estimate is that most of the venture investors in each of those deals personally looked in depth at the manufacturing process of single digit numbers of competing approaches before investing. And only read the little black book on two of them. That strategy was tried, with ahem, "mixed" results, in fuel cells a few years back. We'll see how well it works in thin film solar.
And of course, as with most things in solar, the major players should probably be watched more carefully than the startups. I've always liked larger companies to crack thin film issues, in no small part because the term "stage gate" tends to mean something to them.
But my personal favorite for front runner currently is Arizona based Global Solar, a solar company I have been following for years. Their announcement a few months ago of 10% efficiency in production runs, was pretty much lost in the crush of press around solar, for reasons unfathomable to me.
While admittedly not yet proven in a full production environment (they are working on the scale up to 30 MW plants) they do have the massive advantage of having run virtually the only operating CIGS pilot plant in the world - and I believe have shipped more volume of CIGS product than anyone if not everyone else. True to form, that technology, which originally came out of the Tuscon Electric backed ITN Energy Systems labs in Colorado which later did Ascent Solar, has had an estimated $150-$200 mm plus invested in it over the last decade, before Solon AG bought the company for a reported $16 mm. Though to be fair, current management under CEO Mike Gering was brought on well into that process. So while I'll keep my fingers crossed that some one will crack the CIGS nut, and continue to be flabbergasted at the $1 Bil plus valuations estimated to have been achieved by some of the startups named here for very large science projects, when it comes to the one to watch, Global Solar is my personal pick.
Neal Dikeman is a founding partner at Jane Capital Partners LLC, a boutique merchant bank advising strategic investors and startups in cleantech. He is the founding CEO of Carbonflow, founding contributor of Cleantech Blog, a Contributing Editor to Alt Energy Stocks, Chairman of Cleantech.org, and a blogger for CNET's Greentech blog.
FTL Solar on Wednesday announced it has raised capital to make flexible solar cells for buildings that generate electricity.
The company envisions that its structures, called PowerMods, can be used as battery-charging stations, parking lot canopies, disaster relief shelters, remote medical stations, and for military bases.
Flexible solar cells used to build power-generating buildings.
(Credit: FTL Solar)The company said that Terra Firma Capital Group, the Josh Mailman Foundation, and individual investors completed the first phase of a planned $50 million funding it expects to finish by the end of the year. It was also awarded a $200,000 matching grant from the New York State Energy Research Development Authority.
FTL Solar has very sparse information available on its Web site and didn't respond to a request for more information. But in a press release, it said that its cells will be aimed at both military and commercial clients.
"Our defense and corporate clients can adapt our power generating units to almost every task, from small installations which can power residential needs, charge laptops, cell phones, power water purification and sanitation systems, to large-scale megawatt-generating solar farms," said Tony Saxton, CEO of FTL, in a statement.
Flexible solar cells are commercially competitive with traditional silicon cells on price. So far, companies like First Solar, Nanosolar, and Heliovolt are planning on first making cells for flat solar panels.
But because these thin-film cells are flexible, they can be used for building-integrated photovoltaics, where roofing material, siding, or architectural glass can generate electricity.
Prometheus Institute President Travis Bradford at a Greentech Media solar event last week forecast that thin-film cells will jump in production from 1 gigawatt this year to 9 gigawatts in 2012.
Masdar, an Abu Dhabi-based clean-technology initiative, said on Wednesday that it will invest $2 billion to manufacture thin-film solar cells.
The money will significantly boost global solar cell production, potentially bringing prices down. It's also a major bet on thin-film solar cells, which use less material than traditional silicon.
Solar cells are destined for planned Masdar City.
(Credit: Masdar)Analysts expect thin-film cells, made from a variety of materials, to become a significant portion of solar cell manufacturing and ratchet up competition on incumbent suppliers.
The Masdar Initiative, which is building a "green city" in Abu Dhabi, said in a release that an initial $600 million will go to building a solar plant in Germany that will be online in the third quarter of next year.
Further investments will go to a solar plant in Abu Dhabi, set to be operating in 2010. The two plants, which will be run by an entity called Masdar PV, will be able to produce 210 megawatts annually, which will go to Europe and Abu Dhabi.
Masdar did not indicate which company will supply the solar manufacturing equipment. Forbes speculated that the likely supplier is Applied Materials.
The Masdar Initiative is investing billions in dollars to diversify Abu Dhabi's energy holdings away from oil. Its goal is to create a world-class research and development center in clean energy and to make one gigawatt of electricity from renewable sources by 2014.
Update May 30: Applied Materials on Friday confirmed that it is supplying 210 megawatts of solar cell manufacturing equipment to Masdar PV.
AUSTIN, Texas--"It's like a great big grilled cheese sandwich machine."
That's how solar power company
"You have the Gruyere cheese on one side and the Swiss cheese on the other; we make them react with one another and stick on the bread," Langdon continued when CNET News.com visited the company's headquarters in Austin.
HelioVolt's "grill sandwich" pilot line
(Credit: Hanna Sistek)Replace the cheeses with chemicals specifically prepared for the process and the toast with a thin layer of photovoltaic absorber, and you'll have the essence of HelioVolt's manufacturing technique, called FASST. When the pre-cursed materials react, they form the CIGS, a combination of cadmium, indium, gallium, and selenium.
That "cheesy" layer is put on a sheet of weather-sealing glass and then covered with another glass layer. The company claims that FASST is 10 to 100 times quicker than the last step of the manufacturing process used by some of its competitors. This is because the CIGS reaction is a one-step process, instead of first "making the cheeses" and getting them to react after. A solar cell takes six minutes to produce in this fashion.
Last year, HelioVolt raised $101 million in B-round funding, which it will use to build its first factory, with an initial capacity of 20 megawatts per year.
One of the markets for its thin-film cells is building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). Earlier this month, HelioVolt announced a partnership with construction firm Architectural Glass and Aluminum to enter that market. AGA makes curtain walls--non-weight-bearing facades--for buildings, and HelioVolt will incorporate thin-film cells in the spandrels of AGA's curtain walls.
When it starts production, HelioVolt will begin selling its panels to large solar farms. The company aims to start shipping CIGS panels by the end of the year. The next step is to use BIPV for commercial buildings. The company hopes it will have prototypes for spandrels by next year and products by 2010.
HelioVolt believes that integrated photovoltaics is the future as far as construction materials are concerned, and claims that an average American home would be able to generate 3 kilowatts of electricity during peak hours. This might, in the best-case scenario, be enough to cover the energy needs of the average household.
Solar cell roof tiles
But to get a real breakthrough, BIPV prices need to come down from today's average of $7 or $8 per watt. The price tag for equipping an average American home lies around $20,000, according to HelioVolt. That includes a 25 percent savings from not having to retrofit the solar panels on the roof (the mounting actually makes up half of the cost), the company claims.
The Department of Energy's Solar America Initiative program has set a goal of making solar electricity cost-competitive with grid electricity by 2015. Developing BIPV is a part of that program. Dow Building Solutions, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, got a three-year $9 million grant a year ago to do just that.
Dow is developing flexible solar roof shingles as part of the program, and teamed up with CIGS company Global Solar a couple of weeks ago.
Global Solar is ahead of HelioVolt, with production running at a 40-megawatt capacity from their plant in Tucson, Ariz., and another that's expected to produce 30 megawatts should be up and running in Berlin by the end of 2009. Instead of printing, the company uses a co-evaporation technique to deposit the CIGS material onto 1,000-foot-long rolls of thin stainless steel. They can ship the rolls directly to clients, who themselves may cut out the desired size of the solar cells, and then coat them with glass. This gives Global Solar the advantage of not having to ship the heavy and fragile glass themselves, but creates more work for the customers.
Global Solar is not involved in the BIPV creation process, it just sells the PV material to Dow, and is open to more partnerships with building companies. Tim Teich, vice president of sales and marketing at Global Solar, claims that building companies are rushing to team up with solar corporations. "I get approached every single day," he said.
HelioVolt doesn't have any products--such as roof tiles, shingles, or wall coating--ready yet. It didn't even have any test samples of its CIGS cells to show when I visited. The company still has to figure out how to print the photovoltaics on materials other than glass, which can be expensive. The next materials in line are metal foil and plastics.
BIPV is currently being produced by companies like Suntech Power Holdings, or the much smaller Open Energy Corporation, integrating classic silicon wafers into roof tiles. Other players in the area include Sharp, BP Solar, and SunPower PowerLight.
CIGS are cheaper to manufacture than silicon wafers, which today constitute about 90 percent of the solar market. By 2012, the CIGS market share will increase to 25 percent, according to Lux Research.
