Cell manufacturing

This week, pv magazine was in Taipei for the Energy Taiwan exhibition. The island is moving forward on net-zero ambitions and hosts a renewable energy industry ready to support other companies in achieving them. There is much focus on energy storage and grid integration, as Taiwan looks to create space in its grids for more renewable energy. However, with elections upcoming in early 2024 and one party likely to favor nuclear over renewables, many projects are now on hold.

Scientists from Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE – together with a consortium of plant manufacturers, metrology companies, and research institutions – have developed a new production line concept for high-efficiency silicon cells, with a throughput of 15,000 to 20,000 wafers per hour – roughly double the usual amount.

Dec. 23 saw the inauguration of a new solar cell factory in the city of Khomeini, according to the Iranian government’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization. The factory, operated by Tehran headquartered company Mana Energy Pak, will be among the first in the region to produce silicon solar cells.

In an update to its annual International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics, German engineering association VDMA discusses the readiness level for various technologies in PV cell and module manufacturing, finding that more process development is needed for 210mm wafers – the largest format currently on the market – to match the throughputs that will soon be achievable with smaller formats including 182mm.

Scientists in India conducted a techno-economic analysis for a 100 MW production line for carbon-electrode perovskite solar modules, located in Himachal Pradesh, India. The analysis concludes that, even at the smaller scale, this emerging technology could achieve cost levels comparable with today’s silicon solar products.

The 2021 edition of the International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics (ITRPV) was published today by German engineering association VDMA. The report, which forecasts technology trends across the solar industry, expects PERC to maintain its position as the dominant cell technology and notes that large wafer formats are here to stay.

Scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE developed a model to simulate different setups for screen printing in solar cell metallization. The model provides a comparable ‘screen utility index’ value that can predict the usefulness of different architectures in the printing equipment in relation to the properties of a given silver paste. The approach, says Fraunhofer, will assist the PV industry in reducing the amounts of silver needed in silicon cell manufacturing.

Germany based PV equipment supplier RENA Technologies has received what it describes as its ‘biggest ever order’, from a tier 1 manufacturer in Asia, for 15 GW of its wafer texturing equipment. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, although the company states that the order is worth “tens of millions of euros.”

Using an innovative high-speed video setup, scientists in Germany were able to observe the screen-printing process used in solar cell metallization, on a time scale of less than 50 milliseconds. Insights into the paste’s behavior and the mechanisms at work during screen printing will improve the process and the formulation of the silver paste it relies on.

Swiss equipment supplier Meyer Burger has signed a contract to supply heterojunction cell manufacturing equipment to an unnamed North American manufacturer. The company also posted its preliminary results for the first half, posting a $14 million EBITDA loss but stating it expects to break even for the period after selling its wafer business.