Northern hot spot - PV Magazine

Photomontage: A. Boehm; photo: Istock 

11 | 2010 | 78538 

Photo: Damian Miller 

Markets & Trends 

Left in the lurch: Shell Solar came, 

installed, then left customers in 

India and Sri Lanka alone. Page 30 

Photo: Solland Solar Cells BV 

Industry & Suppliers 

Back contact cells: Solland Solar 

and Schott Solar are planning 

a pilot manufacturing line. Page 73 

Applications & Installations 

Market overview: Smart systems 

speed up the installation of 

ground-mounted PV arrays. Page 86 

photovoltaic markets & technology 

Northern hot spot 

Ontario’s FIT and domestic content program develop PV in fast-forward. Page 20 

Photo: Borrego Solar Systems, Inc.

Shine baby shine! 

» Forget about oil. Solar electricity 

is the energy of the 21st century.*« 

Larry Hagman, also known as the oil tycoon from the TV series “Dallas”, 

always had an intuition for profi table businesses. Now he focuses 

on clean energy made from the sun and sand, and on solar electricity 

systems from SolarWorld – winner of the Photon performance test 

in 2008 and 2009. High performance, German technology. Find out 

more about our smart solar solutions at www.solarworld.com 

* On his farm in Ojai, California, Larry Hagman established the largest 

residential solar power system of the Unites States.

Yes we can 

Dear readers, 

The mood of a winner looks somewhat different. The political 

headwind for renewable energies and photovoltaic technologies 

in the still most economically powerful country in the world, 

the USA, is becoming more turbulent. Needless to say, voters 

in the midterm elections put numerous conservative congressional 

representatives and governors into office who have 

a higher regard for oil, coal and nuclear energy than for solar, 

wind and other environmentally-friendly technologies. Times 

will become even more difficult for President Barack Obama to 

implement the course which he announced two years ago with 

the aim of ecological modernization and accelerated development 

of regenerative and solar energies. 

Making matters worse is the fact that Obama has engaged in 

his own share of dithering. Thus already in August 2009 he cut 

two billion dollars from the Renewable Energy Loan Guarantee 

Program for other government initiatives and another 1.5 billion 

dollars again this August. The solar industry had expected more 

of his campaign slogan, “Yes we can.” Instead of focusing on climate 

protection and renewable energies, Obama invested his 

principal energy pushing through a health care reform which, 

however, earned him few friends and estranged those that he 

already had. Environmental activists are not the only ones who 

regard this as a strategic error. If Obama had first tackled energy 

reform and pushed renewable and solar energies more energetically, 

then he would probably have made himself more friends 

and had quicker visible successes to show for – especially when 

it comes to the monumental topic of jobs. After all, it was high 

unemployment and the poor economic situation that determined 

the result of the midterm elections in America. Nevertheless, 

there was also good news on the evening of November 

2nd: Californian voters were wise enough not to buckle under 

11 / 2010 | www.pv-magazine.com 

From the Editor 

the pressure of “Big Oil” and defeated Proposition 23, which 

would have suspended implementation of the state’s landmark 

Global Warming Act (see page 56 and news item on page 10). 

Indeed a victory for “Yes we can” with regard to climate protection 

and renewable energy. 

The government in Ontario also says “Yes we can” to renewable 

and solar energy. This Canadian province is demonstrating 

what economic achievements are possible within a brief period 

of time with an ambitious Green Energy Act and a feed-in tariff 

program that includes domestic content (see page 20). 

Enormous economic potential also slumbers in the still largely 

undiscovered solar markets of the emerging and developing 

countries along the Earth’s sunbelt, as a new study by A.T. Kearney 

makes clear. Apparently, the PV potential of sixty-six sunbelt 

countries amounts to a total of 1,100 gigawatts of installed 

output by the year 2030. Potential that the solar industry should 

be more resolute about developing (see page 26). 

Finally, a farewell recently had to be bid to an advocate of renewable 

energy who advanced the cause “Yes we can” for decades. 

Hermann Scheer, member of the German Bundestag and recepient 

of, among other honors, the Alternative Nobel Prize, founder 

and President of Eurosolar and one of the authors of Germany’s 

Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), passed away in Berlin at 

just sixty-six years of age. 

I hope you enjoy reading this new issue. 

Hans-Christoph Neidlein 

Editor in chief 

Photo: Solarpraxis AG/Andreas Schlegel 

3

Contents 

Contents 11 / 2010 

20 Ontario 

An attractive FIT program made the 

Canadian Province of Ontario into 

the draft horse of the North American 

PV market. Dozens of companies 

have answered the call. 


6 News 

14 China: What should PV investors be 

prepared for? To what extent can the 

wind industry serve as a guide? 

20 Ontario: Dozens of international 

PV companies have settled in the 

province within just a few months. 

26 Emerging markets: According to a 

study, the nations along the earth’s 

sunbelt offer the greatest solar 

growth potential. 

30 Left in the lurch: The joy of green 

energy installed by the former Shell 

Solar quickly turned to anger. 

36 Corporate Social Responsibility: 

CSR will play a more important role 

for PV companies going forward. 

But does it pay? 

40 Glass meets solar: Both industries 

have only to gain from one another’s 

strengths. 

30 Corporate irresponsibility 

Thousands of solar power systems 

were installed by former Shell Solar 

in India and Sri Lanka. But, in 2007, 

Shell sold up and left, leaving its costumers 

in limbo. 


42 PV Quality Briefing 2010: Plenty of 

positive noises were to be heard in 

the fledgling British market. 

44 Off-grid PV: An overview of challenges 

and opportunities of standalone 

systems from Phocos AG. 

50 Module price index: Suppliers of 

wafers and polycrystalline silicon 

announced price increases. 

52 Stock price index: Macro themes 

are key. 

54 Lead time index: Lead times continue 

to decrease for all categories. 

Solar Power International 2010 

56 SPI 2010 in Los Angeles: Cautious 

optimism prevailed. 

60 Building-integrated PV: A marriage 

of beauty and function. 

66 New products at the SPI 2010 

4 11 / 2010 | www.pv-magazine.com 

Photo: BBDO North America 

Photo: Pradeep

73 Pilot manufacturing of back contact cells 

The less conductive strips are required on the front side of solar cells to establish 

electrical contact with the negative pole, the more light penetrates the cell. 

Although back contacted PV cells offer many advantages, only a few models have 

been able to conquer the market up to now. Now, cooperation between Solland 

Solar and Schott Solar is supposed to change that. 


70 CEO interview: Jeff Britt on Global 

Solar’s strategy in response to the 

evolving solar landscape. 

73 Back contact cells: Schott Solar and 

Solland Solar have plans for pilot 

manufacturing back-contacted solar 

modules. 

78 CEO Interview: Stefan Säuberlich 

talks about the problems that Solon 

solved and the way forward. 

82 Laser manufacturing: Jan Wieduwilt 

of Trumpf GmbH explains the 

benefits of high-performance lasers. 



86 Ground-mounted installation: 

Setting up megawatt parks has to 

become faster. Smart aids to speed up 

field installations. 

90 Market overview: Installation systems 

for ground-mounted PV. 

94 Product news 

Research & Development 

102 Research news 

Service 

104 Events 

106 Preview and imprint 

Photo: Solland Solar 

86 Speading up installation 

Smart ways to secure modules help 

accelerate installation. An introduction 

into the newest techniques and a 

market overview of mounting systems 

for ground-mounted PV arrays. 

Tour Stop No. 15: Solar Industry 

How can 

productivity 

be increased for the 

manufacture of 

solar modules? 

Details on the sensor solution at: 

www.sick-solutions-tour.com 

Contents 

Photo: K2 Systems GmbH 

Advertisement 

10192_Textfeldanz_alle_60x110_wf.indd 15 19.08.10 11:10 

5

Photo: Wikipedia/Someformofhuman 

6 

News 

Singapore International Energy Week 

Cautious solar outlook 

During his opening address at the third 

Singapore International Energy Week, 

held from October 27 to November 4, 

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien 

Loong told delegates that Singapore is not 

ready to embrace solar energy on a significant 

scale. However, he did say the island 

is willing to lend its space, resources, 

know-how and services to help the cause. 

“We have developed the Clean Tech Park 

as the first eco-business park in the region. 

This park will be the focal point for 

large test-bedding and demonstration of 

system level solutions,” said Lee. 

Despite Lee’s reservations, the government 

has attracted the Renewable Energy 

Corporation (REC) to establish 

an integrated solar plant in the eastern 

part of the island. Additionally, the island 

is teeming with solar-knowledge 

IBM/Solar Frontier/DelSolar/Tokyo Ohka Kogyo 

Thin film cells from abundant material 

Computer giant IBM and Solar Frontier, a 

Japan-based expert in CIS-based thin film 

solar cells, have signed an agreement to 

jointly advance IBM’s low-cost thin film 

solar cells, announced Solar Frontier on 

October 19. In February this year, a team 

at IBM’s J. Watson Research Center had 

announced a record efficiency of 9.6 percent 

for solar cells using a new material 

made of copper, zinc, tin, and sulfur and/ 

or selenium (CZTS), and non-vacuum, 

solution-based manufacturing processes. 

CZTS-based solar cells utilize materials 

that are abundant, relatively cheap and 

avoid heavy metals. IBM is also partnering 

with DelSolar Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of 

Delta Electronics, with headquarters in 

Taiwan, to further develop this technology. 

According to Solar Frontier’s press 

release, Tze-Chiang Chen, Vice President 

of Science and Technology, IBM Research, 

said “Adding Solar Frontier’s deep 

expertise in thin-film-based solar device 

technology to this project will strengthen 

the collaborative effort we began in this 

area with Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co.,Ltd, for 

developing chemistry and tooling expertise, 

and more recently adding DelSolar’s 

solar module and manufacturing expertise. 

This team will significantly increase 

our ability to create CZTS photovoltaic 

technology that achieves sustainable grid 

via research and development, through 

the National University of Singapore’s 

Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore 

(SERIS), which is, among other 

tasks, working on tailor-made for the 

tropics, and the efforts of the CleanTech 

department and their cooperation with 

the Housing Development Board to start 

installing local residential estates with 

rooftop solar panels, are helping to integrate 

the technology. 

At the Clean Energy Expo, Joachim Luther, 

CEO of SERIS and Time magazine’s 

“Hero of the Environment” for 2008, 

spoke of three important goals that the 

solar industry should have: bring costs 

down, bring costs down and, once again, 

bring costs down. Luther stated, “I believe 

that solar will hold a giant share of 

the renewables market in the future.” He 

emphasized that the industry has to be 

careful in investing in the correct new 

technology advancements: the best modules, 

inverters and cables can all be put 

together, but with a bad system design, 

the efficiencies will be disappointing. 

Thus system design is also crucial in the 

bid towards achieving not just grid parity, 

but also cost parity for solar. 

http://singapore.iew.com.sg 

parity.” The research for this joint development 

program will mainly take place 

at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research 

Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. 

Solar Frontier is a 100-percent subsidiary 

of Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. with roots in 

the downstream energy business dating 

back more than 100 years. 

http://solar-frontier.com 

www-03.ibm.com 


Photo: IBM

Photo: Wikipedia/Adam.J.W.C. 

8 

News 

China Trends/China Innovation Investment/China Oriental Numerical Control 

Solar electric cars for China 

The investment holding company China 

Trends Holdings Limited has said it is 

looking to develop one million solar 

electric cars, along with China Innovation 

Investment Limited and China Oriental 

Numerical Control Company Limited. 

The news comes as China publishes 

its 12th five-year policy, which lists solar 

energy as one of the seven strategic new 

industries. The three companies explain 

that they have entered into a letter of in- 

Pretherm Solutions/dena/Solon/Inventux Technologies/BAE Batterien/NPP Kvant 

Solar powered Space Museum in Moscow 

An eight kilowatt peak system is currently 

being installed on the roof of the Russian 

Space Museum in Moscow. The project 

is a German-Russian joint venture. Project 

partners include Pretherm Solutions 

GmbH as initiator, the Memorial Space 

Museum, the German Energy Agency 

(dena), the Berlin-based companies Solon 

SE, Inventux Technologies, BAE Batterien 

and Russian firm NPP Kvant. The system 

is a flagship project under the “dena 

Solar Roof Program for Foreign Market 

Development” which is co-financed by 

the German Ministry of Economics and 

Technology. The project involves two PV 

systems, each with a different power generation 

technology. Solon’s crystalline 

based system generated power will be fed 

into the public power grid and the power 

from Inventux’s silicon based thin film 

modules will be initially stored in BAE 

batteries. The PV rooftop will be opened 

on November 2. The project also calls for 

lectures and training sessions to be held 

so that museum visitors can learn about 

photovoltaics. 

www.solon.com 

NSW Government 

New South Wales cuts feed-in tariffs 

A review of the New South Wales (NSW) 

solar bonus scheme has led the state government 

to the decision to reduce the 

tent in which the investee companies of 

China Innovation will provide high-efficiency 

electrical storage technology and 

products, China Trends will take part in 

the operation and marketing, and China 

Oriental Numerical Control will provide 

numerical control products and related 

technology. 

In a statement, China Trends said: “These 

solar electric cars can be used as sightseeing 

transportation, which is suitable 

feed-in tariffs for solar energy. The government 

will cut its feed-in tariffs because 

the scheme’s quota of 50 mega- 

in golf courses, large parks, large exhibition 

halls, residential quarters and scenic 

areas.” 

www.8171.com.hk/index_en.asp 

watts-peak of installed capacity has been 

reached. The the feed-in tariff of Australia’s 

most populous state will be remunerated 

with 0.20 Australian dollars 

(0.14 euros) per kilowatt-hour of energy 

sent to the grid. This is a reduction from 

the pre-existing 0.60 dollars (0.43 euros). 

The New South Wales solar bonus scheme 

was supposed to come into review in 2012 

or subsequently when the threshold of 50 

megawatts-peak have been reached. Energy 

Minister Paul Lynch had asked for 

a review of the scheme in August when 

statistics showed that the threshold had 

been reached earlier than expected. 

www.industry.nsw.gov.au 


Photo: Xinhua News Agency 

Photo: Wikipedia/Vassili Petrovitch

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Photo: Conservative Party/Nick Pickles 

Photo: State of California 

10 

News 

UK Government 

Osborne will not slash feed-in tariffs 

After much speculation and debate that 

the coalition government in the UK 

would slash the feed-in tariffs set by 

the Department of Energy and Climate 

Change, George Osborne, who became 

Chancellor of the Exchequer in May, de- 

First Solar 

Skepticism surrounds First Solar 

Skepticism has bubbled up among some 

investors about First Solar’s ability to stay 

a front-runner. The American company 

actually beat Wall Street’s expectations 

with its third quarter numbers: its quarterly 

net income rose to 176.87 million 

U.S. dollars (USD), or USD 2.04 dollars 

per share, from USD 153.34 million (USD 

1.79 per share) from the year-ago quarter. 

Sales surged to USD 797.9 million from 

USD 480.9 million. But the company also 

livered good news for the PV industry. On 

October 20, he announced in the House 

of Commons that there were to be no cuts 

to the country’s feed-in tariffs. 

The feed-in tariffs formed under the former 

Labour government were at risk of 

being on the chopping board under the 

Spending Review which allocates UK’s 

budget for the next years. However, the 

UK Spending Review highlights under 

point 2.104 that “The efficiency of feed-in 

tariffs will be improved at the next formal 

review, rebalancing them in favour 

of more cost effective carbon abatement 

technologies. This will save 40 million 

pounds in 2014/2015.” The review also 

highlighted that over a billion pounds 

reported numbers that raised alarms. Its 

gross margin dropped to 40.3 percent in 

the third quarter from 48.3 percent in 

the previous quarter. Its project development 

business, which yielded a lower 

gross margin, accounted for a greater 

percentage of the sales. Its manufacturing 

cost inched up by USD 0.01 to USD 0.77 

per watt quarter over quarter. The company’s 

shares dipped nine percent a day 

after it reported the earnings, which has 

California 

Voters say no to oil companies’ Proposition 23 

California voters rejected Proposition 23, 

a ballot initiative organized by oil companies 

to suspend California’s global warming 

law. The “No on 23” campaign against 

Proposition 23, backed by environmental 

groups, celebrities, businesspeople and 

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who 

also held a tweetcast on the issue on October 

21, counted more than 3.5 million 

votes on November 2. 59 percent of these 

voters rejected Proposition 23. According 

to a press release of clean tech public relations 

firm Dogpatch Strategies, Clean 

Economy Network Executive Director 

Jeff Anderson commented: “Clean economy 

businesses took a big step forward as 

a community by coalescing across technologies 

to stop a proposition that threat- 

(approximately 1.13 billion euros) will be 

set aside for the Green Investment Bank. 

Nevertheless, Osborne stressed in his 

speech that he expects more investment 

from the private sector into the renewables 

market. The Review further states 

that 200 million pounds will be set aside 

for the development of low carbon technologies. 

Ray Noble, PV specialist at the 

Renewable Energy Association and former 

head of BP Solar UK, told pv magazine, 

“We are nowhere near fulfilling 

our EU obligations for renewables, and 

the penalties are going to cost us much 

more than even solar power would.” 

www.decc.gov.uk 

prompted a flurry of speculations about 

how investors view the company’s short- 

and long-term prospects. u Ucilia Wang 

www.firstsolar.com 

ened real jobs and economic growth.” 

And Sunil Paul, the founder of Spring 

Ventures and Chairman of Clean Economy 

Network stated: “The defeat of this 

proposition shows the strength and diversity 

of this community that includes Republicans 

and Democrats, big and small 

businesses, and companies from across 

State. We now have momentum to carry 

into other state houses and to Washington 

D.C.” 

www.stopdirtyenergyprop.com 

http://gov.ca.gov 


Photo: First Solar

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12 

News 

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy India 

Solar for Indian mobile phone towers 

The Indian government will ensure that 

it is mandatory for mobile phone towers 

in India to be powered by solar energy. 

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy 

(MNRE) has decided on this move 

in the hope of cutting down pollution 

from diesel consumption in the country. 

Diesel is the fuel of choice at the moment 

in powering the 350,000 mobile phone 

towers across India. 

“We are working on a new scheme that 

will support adoption of greener practices 

by telecos while rolling out their 

services for customers,” Deepak Gupta, 

Secretary with the MNRE told India’s 

Economic Times. Gupta also said that a 

test project is being carried out on 600 

towers and be in operation by the sec- 

ond half of 2011. The feedback of this test 

project will see the further developments 

and funding of the scheme. Each tower 

is expected to cost about INR 40 Lakhs 

or around 65,000 euros. The additional 

solar panel installation will cost about 

INR 16 Lakhs or approximately 25,87 

euros. 

Capital support may be minimum for 

this scheme but the government may 

offer soft loans to companies under the 

refinancing schemes of the Indian Renewable 

Energy Development Agency. 

The aim of the the Jawaharlal Nehru National 

Solar Mission is to increase solar 

power capacity in India. 

www.mnre.gov.in 

Republic of South Korea 

South Korea to fund Mozambique’s solar plants 

The South Korean government announced 

that it will provide a 35 million 

U.S. dollar loan to build three solar 

power plants in Mozambique. The Economic 

Development Cooperation Fund 

will be offering the funding interestfree 

for 40 years, with a grace period of 

15 years. The government has also stated 

that it will offer training for the operation 

of the plants and the maintenance 

works, to have trained local personnel 

with the necessary know-how. The three 

solar plants are to be developed to provide 

400 to 500 kilowatts of power and 

will be situated in Niassa in the northern 

part of Mozambique. Niassa has a population 

of just over a million and is also one 

of the provinces badly hit by power failures 

and lack of electricity. 

The electricity infrastructure in Mozambique 

is largely under-developed in the 

rural areas with statistics showing that 

UNEP/Energiebau Solarstromsysteme/Schott Solar/SMA/Kaneka 

First energy-neutral building in Africa 

Energiebau Solarstromsysteme, based 

in Cologne, Germany, has received a 

commission to construct a high-performance 

photovoltaic system on the roof 

of the new UNEP (United Nations Environment 

Programme) office building in 

Nairobi, Kenya. The new office complex 

will be the first energy-neutral building 

on the African continent according to 

UNEP. Project leader Bernd Wolff stated 

that as a comparison, the energy supply 

at the new UNEP premises would meet 

the needs of over 150 European house- 

holds. Energiebau Solarstromsysteme’s 

construction will encompass a 515 kilowatts 

peak total output. 

The building will be completed by the 

end of this year. The new UNEP office, 

in which over 1,000 people are set to be 

working, will be in operation when the 

Environment Ministers of all nations 

meet in Nairobi in February 2011. The 

solar system on the rooftop will provide 

the exact amount of energy required for 

building operations over the course of 

one year. Schott Solar, SMA Solar Tech- 

as little as two percent of rural dwellers 

have access to electrical power. The urban 

population also has to deal with irregular 

power supplies. The South Korean government 

has stated that it is interested in 

extending its services and funds to development 

and establishing eco-friendly infrastructure 

in other African provinces 

as well. 

www.odakorea.go.kr 

nology, as well as the Japanese company 

Kaneka are also supplying individual system 

components. 

www.energiebau.de 


Photo: Wikipedia/Premkudva 

Photo: Wikipedia/Sam Stearman

Photo: Solarpraxis AG 

Solarpraxis/Conferencia de la Industria Solar – España 2010 

The benchmark market in Spain 

The fourth Conferencia de la Industria 

Solar – España 2010 (CIS-ES 2010) was 

opened in Madrid on October 7th by 

Jaume Margarit i Roset, Director of the 

Department of Renewable Energies at the 

Spanish Energy Agency (Instituto para la 

Diversificación y Ahorro de la Energía, 

IDAE), David Pérez, partner in the international 

consulting company Eclareon, 

and Luis Imaz, Director of Grid Development 

at the Spanish grid operator 

Red Eléctrica de España. Together they 

analyzed the current situation among 

solar technologies and the trends for the 

months to come for the approximately 

250 participants. 

Jaume Margarit i Roset pointed out that 

“the promotion of renewable energies because 

of their industrial-economic and 

social significance as well as their importance 

for ensuring the reliability of the 

power supply is strategic in nature and 

should not be regarded exclusively from 

the perspective of profitability.” For him 

“of all the renewable energies, solar energy 

is the one that has the greatest potential 

for Spain.” In his opinion “the energy 

system should develop in such a way 

that solar technologies are able to play a 

key role.” 

Luis Imaz from Red Eléctrica stressed 

that Spain represents a “global bench- 


mark for the integration of renewable 

energies with its approximately 20,000 

megawatts of wind energy and 4,000 

megawatts of solar energy.” For this reason 

pioneering technologies were developed 

in Spain, such as the Control Centre 

of Renewable Energies (Cecre). As an 

operation unit integrated into Red Eléctrica’s 

power control center, Cecre manages 

and controls the output of renewable 

energy sources. 

David Pérez explained the ramifications 

of the declining photovoltaics market in 

Spain during the past two years, including 

the collapse of photovoltaic production 

in Spain: “From a base of seven percent 

of all photovoltaic cells worldwide, 

the sector was reduced to less than one 

percent over the past five years.” Thus he 

appealed to the government “to improve 

the policy for research and development 

and for the support of industrial production,” 

in order to “maintain a solar industry 

that is able to develop stable activities.” 

On the other hand Pérez remarked on 

“the excellent position enjoyed by Spanish 

companies for their solar-thermoelectric 

activities throughout the entire 

world.” 

www.solarpraxis.de 

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14 


One of China’s “national champions”: Yingli Green Energy. Pictured is Yingli’s in-house polysilicon manufacturing 

facility, Fine Silicon, in Baoding. 

With time and patience 

China: “With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown”, says a Chinese 

proverb. Investing in China indeed seems to require a great deal of patience. It is still not 

clear how China wants to develop its domestic PV market. What should foreign investors 

be prepared for? And to what extent can the wind industry serve as a guide? 

At the IPVSEE conference in late September 

2010 in Beijing, Mr. Zhang Jie, Vice- 

Chairman of the Energy Department & 

Research Center of the China Investment 

Association, cautioned that “this was not 

the right time for foreign companies to 

enter the Chinese solar energy market, at 

least in the area of large-scale PV power 

plants.” It became clear at the conference 

that China’s domestic PV market is still 

in its starting phase and that it would 

take some time before it made economic 

sense for foreign companies to invest in 

this market. This contrasts with the situation 

in the Chinese wind energy sector, 

which is much more developed and 

where foreign firms have a long track record 

of significant investment, including 

local production plants and the transfer 

of technology from their home country to 

China. As we try to predict the future development 

of the Chinese PV market, the 

wind industry can provide some helpful 

guidance on how the Chinese PV market 

might progress and what challenges foreign 

companies will most likely face as 

they seek to capture a slice of what promises 

to be a very large market as well. 

If we look at the current state of the 

Chinese PV market, everything pales 

in comparison to China’s export-driven 

PV industry. From being a no name ten 

years ago, Chinese solar panel manufacturers 

now supply almost one-half of the 

global market. This export-driven industry 

has a capacity of several gigawatts, but 

at home the installed base is only a paltry 

160 megawatts. Clearly, the global financial 

crisis and recession in 2008 and 


Photo: Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited

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16 


The aesthetic benefits of PV were highlighted in a 

section of the IPVSEE exhibition in Beijing. 

2009 prompted the Chinese government 

to lessen its dependence on foreign markets 

and think of measures to develop domestic 

demand. 

One of the most important initiatives 

is in the utility-scale PV segment and involves 

a series of “demonstration projects” 

in China’s remote western regions. 

This program fits well with China’s overall 

policy to support development of China’s 

western (or inland) regions, which 

have fallen behind the much more prosperous 

coastal regions. The latest round 

of “demonstration projects” involves 

thirteen projects with a combined output 

of 280 megawatts. They are spread over 

six provinces, including Inner Mongolia 

(three projects of 20 megawatts), Xinjiang 

(three of 20 megawatts), Gansu (three of 

20 megawatts), Qinghai (one of 30 megawatts 

and one of 20 megawatts), Ningxia 

(one of 30 megawatts) and Shaanxi (one 

of twenty megawatts). All of these projects 

were put out to tender with a deadline 

of August 20, 2010 for the submission 

of bids. 

The results were quite surprising, given 

that in a previous tender in 2009 (the first 

involving a utility-scale PV power plant 

in China) the successful bid had offered 

a power purchase agreement (PPA) price 

of 1.09 Yuan per kilowatt-hour. The 2009 

tender involved only one facility with a 

size of ten megawatts. Located in Dunhuang 

in Gansu Province, this project 

marked the launch of the national government’s 

“demonstration project” program. 

One expected outcome of this program 

is a national feed-in tariff (FIT), 

which would provide a significant boost 

to the domestic PV market. Wind power 

already enjoys a national FIT in the range 

of Renminbi (RMB) 0.51 to 0.61 per kilowatt-hour. 

The big surprise with the 2010 

round of “demonstration projects” was 

the low level of PPA pricing. Most bids 

were well under the one RMB level with 

the lowest bid coming in at an incredible 

0.7288 Yuan per kilowatt-hour. (One 

U.S. dollar is worth about 6.8 Yuan, or 

RMB, so the lowest bid amounted to 0.10 

dollar) PPAs were for a 25-year term and 

in most cases the companies bidding for 

these projects were state-controlled utilities 

and not PV manufacturers. 

In fact, companies in the private sector 

or from overseas either stayed away altogether 

or were unsuccessful in their bids. 

They were simply not willing to go under 

or near the one Yuan threshold to grab a 

piece of the market, much as their participation 

would have boosted their visibility 

and given them a possible “first mover” 

advantage in the domestic PV market. 

The scale of these projects was most impressive 

as 280 megawatts is just below 

China’s cumulative PV power (300 megawatts) 

target for the end of this year. 

However, 280 megawatts is still a small 

number when compared with China’s 

wind industry. At the end of 2009, China 

had 25.8 gigawatts of installed wind 

power and another 18 gigawatts of capacity 

should be added this year. Eighty 

Chinese wind turbine manufacturers 

compete for this market, not to mention 

foreign manufacturers like Suzlon and 

Vestas. Vestas was the first foreign manufacturer 

to enter China way back in 1986 

and in the meantime it has invested three 

billion RMB in China and has a total of 

six Chinese factories. The tremendous 

growth of the Chinese wind power industry 

mirrors that of the Chinese PV manufacturers 

with the big difference that the 

latter is almost completely export-oriented 

(almost 90 percent) whereas the 

former is mainly focused on its domestic 

market. 

So can the development of China’s 

wind industry act as a guide for China’s 

nascent domestic PV market? There certainly 

are parallels. In both cases there 

is a strategic national objective to boost 

China’s performance and know-how in 

this sector. Both will play key roles in 

reaching China’s ambitious target for renewable 

energy of 15 percent of the nation’s 

total energy mix by the year 2020. 

And in the wind industry, a national FIT 

was developed following a tender process 

not unlike the current “demonstration 

projects” on the solar side. 

Bias towards national champions 

How about the aspect of foreign involvement 

in this renewable energy market? 

In the case of wind, the national government 

boosted its domestic manufacturing 

base and know-how by requiring 

70 percent local content for wind projects. 

This crippled foreign suppliers and 

only the concerted efforts of the European 

Chamber of Commerce and other 

chambers led to the recent removal of this 

requirement. However, the damage had 

been done and today Chinese wind turbine 

manufacturers have a 70 to 75 percent 

market share compared to only 25 

percent in 2004. But as a representative 

of a major foreign wind turbine company 

points out, “even a small market share is 

attractive given the tremendous size of 

China’s wind market.” 

Some industry observers would argue 

that the picture is in fact very similar on 

the PV side. Instead of adopting a strict 

local content rule, the approach in the PV 

sector is to provide large-scale and preferential 

financing to “national champions” 

in this industry, while at the same time 

keeping PPA and FIT rates at low levels 

to make it more difficult for foreign (and 

even private Chinese) players to enter the 

game. While the current round of “demonstration 

projects” shows a definite bias 

towards national champions, especially 

on the state-owned side, it can be argued 

that the domestic PV market is still very 

small and that a strong drive led by the 

public sector is needed to make this market 

more mature in a short time frame. 

In addition, the virtues of scale seen in 

the wind power market might also be tilting 

the government’s preferences towards 

larger players, whether state-owned, private 

or foreign. China’s PV industry has 

already achieved significant economies of 

scale based on its export success and one 

reason the Chinese government might 

be delaying a national FIT is to see how 

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Photo: Eckhart K. Gouras 

18 


Modern architecture was on display near the 

IPVSEE 2010 venue in Beijing: the CCTV Tower. 

far PV system prices will drop. Establishing 

a FIT regime makes more sense once 

these prices have stabilized, which would 

again mirror the situation in which FIT 

rates were set for wind power. 

Low PPA and FIT rates effectively promote 

a local content regime as well, since 

in such a market there would be a strong 

pressure to reduce overall PV system 

costs. And the only way to do this is to 

drive up local content. 

On the wind front this is exactly what 

has happened, even after the 70 percent 

local content rule was dropped. In 

order to compete in this highly competitive 

market with a rather low national 

FIT foreign suppliers are scrambling to 

go local. A pioneer in this respect is the 

Indian wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon, 

which not only has built up 600 

megawatts of manufacturing capacity 

in China, but a 100-percent local supply 

chain for its wind turbines. Given this 

local supply chain and impressive economies 

of scale, Suzlon can compete head 

on with Chinese manufacturers. 

Most likely First Solar will have to 

go down this road as well, if it wants to 

complete the most ambitious solar project 

in China to date, a two-gigawatt PV 

power plant in Inner Mongolia in north- 

ern China. The project has stalled due to 

the failure to secure a FIT from either 

the provincial or national governments. 

Most likely, the Chinese side would like 

to see more local content combined with 

a certain transfer of technology, which 

is often the price paid by foreign manufacturers 

interested in taking a slice of 

the Chinese market (foreign wind turbine 

manufacturers are a case in point). 

Even First Solar’s regulatory filings in the 

United States reveal that a certain technology 

transfer is in the works. 

Just as Vestas had interesting knowhow 

in the area of wind turbines, First 

Solar has a key competitive advantage in 

its proprietary thin film manufacturing 

process. At the end of the day a certain 

balance will have to be struck, involving 

a limited transfer of technology and local 

production, while at the same time protecting 

the company’s intellectual property 

(IP) as much as possible. Striking 

the right balance is not easy and whether 

the foreign company has IP in solar or 

wind, it has to utilize all available measures 

to protect its IP when doing business 

in China. 

Intellectual property protection 

Fortunately, China has made significant 

progress in strengthening its IP protection 

and enforcement in the past few 

years. For example, a new patent law 

came into effect on October 1st 2009, 

which increases penalties and enhances 

the powers of the administrative authority. 

But these protections are only beneficial 

if the foreign company has registered 

its IP (patent, copyright or trademark) or 

license agreement in China. In addition, 

the relevant market should be monitored 

closely (e.g. at trade shows) and if cases 

of infringement are identified, the Chinese 

authorities should be notified immediately. 

Chinese customs authorities play 

a key role in IP protection and enforcement, 

since they can confiscate infringing 

products upon their leaving or entering 

China. Customs can also impose fines 

on infringers. One helpful resource for 

finding out more about IP enforcement in 

China is the EU-funded China IPR SME 

Helpdesk (www.china-iprhelpdesk.eu). 

However, as the IPVSEE conference in 

September showed, it is still too early for 

foreign firms to enter the utility-scale PV 

market in China. While we wait for a national 

FIT (and do the homework on the 

IP side), some serious technical hurdles 

remain, which is delaying large-scale PV 

adoption in China. At the IPVSEE conference 

in Beijing, grid integration and network 

transmission from power plants in 

the remote west to demand centers in the 

east were key concerns limiting domestic 

PV power growth. These western regions 

of China also have to contend with severe 

sandstorms and this factor still needs to 

be assessed more carefully in order to 

make PV power plants withstand natural 

forces, which are much less common in 

other markets where PV power has been 

deployed on a larger scale. 

China is addressing these technical issues 

and one initiative highlighted at IP- 

VSEE is the ten-megawatt demonstration 

plant in Yanxing just north of Beijing. 

This demonstration plant was launched 

in August of this year and will be completed 

in August of next year. Foreign 

suppliers are invited to participate too 

and the overall aim of this facility is to 

test new photovoltaic technologies and 

products under Chinese conditions. 

While such initiatives will help solve 

technical challenges, on the economic 

side the economies of scale built up by 

Chinese PV manufacturers will continue 

to lower PV system costs, thereby making 

even a low FIT less of a hurdle than 

one might think. In fact, the biggest challenge 

for foreign PV companies might not 

be the level of national (or regional) FITs, 

but the economies of scale and high level 

of technological development the Chinese 

PV industry has achieved after its 

impressive success on the export front. 

Foreign firms will have to examine where 

they can add value and where their technology 

is still a step ahead of the Chinese 

competition. To name some examples, 

this might include First Solar’s technology, 

building-integrated PV (BIPV) and 

manufacturing equipment. 

The next chapter in China’s development 

of its domestic solar power industry 

promises to be an exciting one and a 

good dose of competition between local 

and foreign players promises to promote 

innovation and even lower PV system 

costs. And if the Chinese wind industry 

is any guide, foreign players will also 

feature prominently in the domestic solar 

market, but only if they have an attractive 

offer for the Chinese market, manage 

their IP wisely, develop a solid local 

production base and work alongside the 

Chinese in tapping this very large market. 

u Eckhart Gouras 


20 


Heleine Canada’s new module manufacturing facility in Sault Ste. Marie started operations in mid-October with a 

capacity of 50 megawatts. 

Northern domestic action 

Ontario: The Canadian Province of Ontario, with its FIT program, is considered the draft 

horse of the North American PV market. A domestic content provision is to keep the 

value creation within the province. Already dozens of international companies have 

settled in the province within just a few months. One unanswered question is, however, 

for how long the high subsidies can be paid, and whether the high price market is in the 

long run competitive. 

Randy Tallon is a man of action. Black 

fleece, bald, a big grin on his face, attentive 

blue eyes, a quick gait, a strong handshake; 

and he has a message as well as 

a mission: “Sault Ste. Marie is the alternative 

energy capital of North America.” 

Modesty is spelled differently. But on the 

way from the airport to the center of the 

75,000 resident capital of the province 

in the southeast of Ontario, it becomes 

clear that the International Relations Director 

of the local Economic Development 

Corporation has more to offer than 

just words. The 126 wind turbines of the 

189-megawatt (MW) Prince Wind Farm 

tower over the wooded hills. Five hydroelectric 

stations around the city annually 

produce approximately 203 megawatts of 

clean energy. Two local companies work 

on the biodiesel and methane gas reprocessing. 

The steel plant Esser Steel Algoma 

produces 50 percent of its energy itself 

with the help of a cogeneration power 

plant. With regard to photovoltaics, the 

old trapper city, founded by the French in 

the 17th century and located along the St. 

Mary’s River that connects Lake Huron 

and Lake Superior, has quite a bit to be 

proud of. On the left and right side of an 

access road to a local school and immediately 

adjacent to a power line, thousands 

of modules from the first two construction 

phases of a solar park projected to 

reach 60 megawatts, are flashing in the 

late fall sunshine. 

Economic developer Randy Tallon, 

Robert Reid, head of local energy service 

provider N-Sci Technologies, and 

Richard H. Weiss with the plant’s oper- 


Photos: Solarpraxis AG/H.C.Neidlein

DOmestic cOntent GriD – 

crystalline silicOn sOlar PV PrOjects >10 kW 

Designated Activity Qualifying Percentage 

Silicon refined in Ontario 11% 

Silicon ingots cast and wafers cut in Ontario 13% 

Cells formed in Ontario 11% 

Modules (i.e. panels), electrical connections 

formed and materials encapsulated in Ontario 

Inverter assembled wired and tested 

in Ontario 

Mounting systems where structural 

components made in Ontario 

Wiring and electrical hardware sourced 

from an Ontario Supplier 

Construction costs and on-site labour, 

where labour is performed substantially 

by residents of Ontario 

Consulting services performed substantially 


ator Starwood from the state of Connecticut proudly pose in 

front of the fenced-in solar field. “So far, everything has gone 

according to schedule,” emphasizes Starwood Director Weiss. 

“Local support and acceptance is excellent.” The EPC contractor 

of this large project is Q-Cells International. According to 

Weiss, the project was chiefly financed by the US branch of 

LB Nordbank. It was contracted last year under the provincial 

government Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program 

(RESOP) already before the Ontario Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program 

under the Green Energy Act started on October 1, 2009 

(see pv magazine 06/2009). In line with the RESOP Program, 

the energy the plant feeds into the system is paid at 42 Canadian 

cents for each kilowatt hour (kWh). 


15% 

8% 

11% 

9% 

18% 

4% 

Total 100% 

DOmestic cOntent GriD – 

thin Film sOlar PV PrOjects >10 kW 

Designated Activity Qualifying Percentage 

Cells where the active photovoltaic layer(s) 

have been fabricated in Ontario. Where the 

manufacture of the module is inseparable from 

the manufacture of the cells, there shall be no 

separate requirement for the module 

Module (i.e. panel), where the electrical 

connections were formed and materials 

encapsulated in Ontario 

Inverter, where the assembly, final wiring and 

testing have been done in Ontario 

Mounting systems, where structural 

components made in Ontario 

Wiring and electrical hardware sourced from 

an Ontario Supplier 

Construction costs and on-site labour, 

where labour is performed substantially 


Consulting services performed substantially 


35% 

10% 

8% 

10% 

9% 

24% 

4% 

Total 100% 

Source: Ontario Ministry of Energy, October 2010 

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22 


The feed-in tariff of the FIT program 

for solar parks with a performance of up 

to ten kilowatts (kW) is a little higher with 

44.3 Canadian cents/kWh. One of the requirements 

for payment is now, however, 

that the energy producer, who applies to 

the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) for 

the FIT contract, ensures that their energy 

project meets the Ontario Domestic 

Content (DC) requirements. This regulation 

applies to all types of plants, but is 

staggered. Operators of ground-mounted 

and rooftop installations over ten kilowatts 

have to prove a domestic content 

percentage of 50 percent by the end of 

this year. Starting on January 1, 2011, 

they have to show a percentage of 60 percent. 

Operators of plants up to ten kilowatts 

have to show a DC percentage of 40 

percent by the end of this year, and start- 

PhOtOVOltaic equiPment manuFacturers OntariO 

cOmPany PrODuct 

AQ Solar (Evergreen Power/ 

ASOLA joint venture) 

ing next year, 60 percent. This means for 

all plant operators who want to receive a 

feed-in compensation that at least 40 to 

60 percent of the overall project value has 

to have been created in Ontario. 

In this context, the OPA for thin film 

and crystalline silicon solar projects has 

submitted a key with “predetermined 

qualifying percentages associated with 

each designated activity,” which is the 

basis for the DC calculation. If, for example, 

silicon that is “refined in Ontario” 

is used for crystalline silicon PV projects 

(over ten kW), are projected with eleven 

qualifying percentages, then cells that are 

“created in Ontario” are also accounted 

for with eleven qualifying percentages. If 

modules are used whose electrical connections 

are “formed and material encapsulated 

in Ontario”, 15 percentage points 

Crystalline PV modules (mid-2011) 

Arise Technologies Corp. Solar grade silicon – pilot production 

Calisolar Inc. (formerly 6N Silicon) Solar grade silicon 

Canadian Solar PV Modules (early 2011) 

Canasia Solar Corp. PV Modules (announced July 13, 2010) 

Cleanfield Energy Corporation Nanowire PV Cell Development 

Cyrium Technologies Development of solar cells for concentrated photovoltaics 

Eco Energy Solar electronics, charge controllers, 

low voltage disconnectors for PV systems 

Everbrite Thin film solar panels (2010) 

Glenergy Inc. Small solar-powered lights, distribution of alternative energy 

equipment, and design and installation services 

Greenpower Farms PV Modules (November, 2010) 

Heliene Canada PV Panels (September, 2010) 

Menova Energy “Power-Spar” – Solar Concentrator to provide heat, 

hot water and electrical power 

Morgan Solar Concentrated photovoltaics (2011) 

Opsun Panels PV Panels (third quarter 2010) 

Photowatt Ontario Inc. PV Modules 

PRISED Solar Inc. Silicon Refinement Development 

Quadra Solar Concentrated photovoltaics 

Routes AstroEngineering Space-grade solar panels for satellites 

Silfab SpA PV Modules (July, 2011) 

Siliken Renewable Energies PV Panels (2011 Q2) 

Solar Semiconductor PV Panels (2010) 

Solar Source Corp. of Canada/HHV PV Crystalline Panels (2011) 

Solera Sustainable Energies Company Photovoltaic system controls 

SolGate Solar panels, 75-230 watts 

Sustainable Energy Technologies Thin Film PV Modules (2011) 

Unconquered Sun Solar Technologies Solar panels, 220 watts 

Source: Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Ontario, October 181h 2010 

can be allocated, and inverters “assembled, 

wired, and tested in Ontario” bring 

eight qualifying percentage points. In 

regard to construction costs and onsite 

labor, labor “performed substantially by 

residents of Ontario” accounts for 18 percentage 

points. This way, the operator has 

a choice as to which components and services 

for the plant were made in Ontario 

and which were not. “What is important 

here is only that the total percentage of 

domestic content is reached,” emphasizes 

Leo Tasca, Manager of the Renewable Energy 

Unit at the Ministry of Energy and 

Infrastructure in Toronto. 

But are there actually enough providers 

in the still young PV market in Ontario? 

Currently, an operator of a plant 

that produces more than 10 kilowatts 

with crystalline modules can also reach 

the required 50 percent domestic content 

percentage, if the planning and installation 

contracts go to residents, and if the 

inverters, mounting systems, and wiring 

and electrical hardware is “made in Ontario.” 

There are already quite a few local 

suppliers for these components, among 

them dozens of international companies, 

who began business within the last twelve 

months in Ontario as Conergy, Deger Energy, 

Power One, Schletter, SMA, Sunlink, 

Schneider Electric, Flextronics-Enphase 

Energy, Atlas Tube or Melitron. 

But starting on January 1, 2011, either the 

modules, cells, wafers, or silicon have to 

come from Ontario in order to fulfill the 

60 percent DC requirement, and these 

are components that are currently hardly 

manufactured in this province. “We are 

very confident that this is going to change 

soon,” responded Tasca, who referenced 

an updated list of all photovoltaic equipment 

manufacturers in Ontario, which 

includes more than a dozen module manufacturers 

that are scheduled to be producing 

in Ontario by July of next year at 

the latest. 

One of them, Heleine Canada, a subsidiary 

of the Spanish Helios Europe, has its 

head office in the new industrial area of 

Sault Ste. Marie. “I have not had a weekend 

off in weeks,” said President Martin 

Pochtaruk and winked at his forklift 

operator, who was just delivering a pallet 

with machine parts. The cell lines in 

the hall are already operational, the laminators 

have been installed, the first produced 

modules are already stacked, but 

“we are waiting for the flashers to be installed 

before we can deliver products,” 


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24 


Robert Reid, Randy Tallon and Richard H. Weiss (left to right) in front of the fenced-in solar field installation 

in Sault Ste. Marie. 

said Pochtaruk. According to information 

provided by him, the machines are 

mostly from Spain, and Heleine Canada 

procures most of the cells from Sunways, 

Bosch Solar, Arise Technologies 

in Bischofswerda and Suniva. The current 

production capacity is designed for 

50 megawatts, but is scheduled to be increased 

to 80 megawatts by spring. “We 

are currently the largest module manufacturer 

in Ontario,” Pochtaruk proudly 

explains. The 10 million Canadian dollar 

plant was mainly financed through private 

investment. 

“We are early movers and hope to 

achieve a competitive advantage this 

way, especially once the more stringent 

requirements of the Domestic Content 

of the FIT program become effective on 

January 1,” Pochtaruk emphasizes. One 

of their challenges, however, is the lack 

of local suppliers. Many products such as 

glass, back sheets or junction boxes still 

have to be purchased in Europe. “We are, 

however, working on convincing suppliers 

such as Coverme to move here,” 

Pochtaruk adds. He does not believe that 

there will be module bottlenecks, due to 

the fact that other larger manufacturers 

such as Canadian Solar would also soon 

be offering modules “made in Ontario.” 

He also does not think that all projects 

that were applied for at the OPA will be 

implemented in the coming months “because 

they first need to find financing.” 

In terms of bankability, business developer 

Randy Tallon believes that there is a 

lot of pent-up demand. “Awareness needs 

to be increased, because many banks do 

not really know what to do with photovoltaics,” 

he says. According to official 

information, the OPA has so far entered 

into 905 agreements under the FIT 

program for larger PV projects (more 

than 10 kilowatts) with a total capacity 

of 732 megawatt (567 MW groundmounted, 

165 MW rooftop). Officially, 

seven FIT projects (including wind and 

biogas) have started production; a total 

of 28 projects have been approved and 

financed, representing only a fraction of 

the applied-for plants. “I think that no 

more than 30 megawatts of PV is going 

to be installed in Ontario during the 

coming year,” Pochtaruk estimates (see 

pv magazine 10/2010). 

It is clear that such a young program 

needs some lead time and that a region 

such as Ontario cannot create a solar infrastructure 

in just a few months. Therefore, 

the number of submitted solar proj- 

ects and the number of companies that 

are willing to move here or that have already 

moved here is considerable and 

the first success history of the FIT program 

and its domestic content provision, 

the President of Heleine Canada emphasizes. 

There are, however, also critical 

voices. The Managing Director of Krinner 

Canada, Meinolf Schulte, for example, 

has his doubts whether the high subsidies 

can be maintained beyond the next 

provincial elections in the coming year, 

and whether the premium price products 

manufactured in Ontario are globally 

competitive. 

So far, the provincial government has 

not established any development goals 

or a cap for the subsidy or a degression 

of the compensation prices. It has, however, 

stipulated that the OPA has to review 

the program every two years. It is 

financed, as in Germany, through electricity 

rates. “We want to create new jobs, 

diversify our economy, and decommission 

our coal power plants starting in 

2014, and this is why we do not want to 

set any limitations when it comes to solar 

subsidies,” explains the manager from 

the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, 

Leo Tasca. “So far, our program is a 

success and we are getting positive feedback 

from all sides,” he emphasizes. The 

Ministry is currently working on an energy 

plan with development goals for renewable 

energies and the development of 

FIT programs in other countries is being 

monitored carefully. 

It will be very interesting to see how 

PV is going to develop in Ontario and 

whether other Canadian provinces will 

join the movement and pass similar FIT 

programs. u Hans-Christoph Neidlein 

For additional information see also our feature on 

www.pv-magazine.com 

FeeD-in tariFFs FOr PV OntariO Canadian cent/kWh Euro cent/kWh 

Roof/ground-mounted arrays under 10 kW: 80.2 56.6 

Roof-mounted arrays between 10 and 250 kW: 71.3 50.4 

Roof-mounted arrays between 250 and 500 kW: 63.5 44.8 

Roof-mounted arrays over 500 kW: 53.9 38.1 

Ground-mounted arrays up to 10 MW: 44.3 31.3 

“Community ownership” bonus (ground-mounted arrays) 1.0 0.71 

“Aboriginal ownership” bonus (ground-mounted arrays) 1.5 1.06 

Period of validity: 20 years 

Progressive reduction: checks on compensation every two years 

Financing: via electricity bills 

www.powerauthority.on.ca Source: Ontario Ministry of Energy, exchange rate of November 2, 2010 


26 


Photovoltaics – as here at Ondangwa University in northern Namibia – will continue to grow in emerging and 

developing countries. 

Beyond the horizon 

Emerging markets: The international PV industry is primarily focused on businesses 

in the industrialized countries. According to a new study by A.T. Kearney, the emerging 

and developing nations along the earth’s sunbelt, with their rapidly growing economies, 

offer the greatest solar growth potential. However, the industry is still shying away from 

jumping into the new world. 

The financial crisis has considerably altered 

the balance of power in the world 

economy. While the industrial countries 

slid inexorably, one after the other into 

recession and are only slowly recovering, 

the economies of the emerging and many 

developing countries are still expanding 

at a breathtaking speed. According to 

the latest International Monetary Fund 

(IMF) economic forecast from October 

2010, economies in the emerging and developing 

countries will grow by 7.1 percent 

in 2010 and by 6.4 percent in 2011, 

while industrial nations will only manage 

2.7 percent in 2010 and 2.2 percent 

in 2011. 

“The catch-up process of the leading 

emerging countries has shortened as a 

result of the financial crisis,” is the explanation 

of Ulrich Kater, Chief Economist 

at DekaBank in Frankfurt, of the development. 

“In this time, they have made 

up ten years compared to the industrialized 

countries.” 

However, in the solar industry most 

growth is still taking place in Europe. 

With the exception of China and India, 

the majority of solar markets, apart from 

the industrialized nations, have until now 

hardly been of interest for the majority of 

vendors. “The emerging and developing 

countries along the earth’s sunbelt offer 

the industry enormous potential for 

growth,” said Jochen Hauff from consulting 

firm A.T. Kearney. “The growth 

of PV could be accelerated tremendously, 

if the world’s sunbelt PV potential were 

‘unlocked’,” he explained as the central 

finding of a study which the consulting 

company has recently carried out on behalf 

of the European Photovoltaic Industry 

Association (EPIA). 

The paper carried out research into 

the PV potential of 66 sunbelt countries. 

Up to 2030, depending on the scenario, 

they could achieve installed outputs of 

between 260 and 1,100 gigawatts. Leading 

the way are China and India, who to- 


Photo: Oliver Ristau

Silicon & Wafer 

Solar cell & Module 

Thin film module

28 


gether could deliver about half of this potential 

capacity. “Of course, the barriers 

to market launch in China are still high 

at the moment,” said study author Hauff, 

referring to projects which are directed 

above all at the domestic industry. However, 

that could change, when the country 

starts to sustainably exploit its solar potential. 

In the next ten years he reckons 

with the addition of at least 23 gigawatts, 

which under ideal conditions could grow 

to 130 gigawatts. India follows with 13 to 

40 gigawatts of PV potential. According 

to the study, these facilities cannot be 

provided by national suppliers alone, just 

as the expected PV growth on the Arabian 

peninsula, in Latin America as well 

as in North and South Africa. 

However, Hauff expects that companies 

that merely export will have less good 

prospects to take part in this growth. 

“Local content is crucial, as many countries 

want to keep a proportion of the 

added value in-country.” This view is affirmed 

by Gregor Küpper, Head of Solar- 

World Africa: “Without a local factory 

it could be difficult to receive government 

assignments.” Although A.T. Kearney 

sees potential for up to 20 gigawatts 

by 2030 in South Africa, only Tenesol, a 

Total/EDF subsidiary, runs a local module 

factory. 

“The industry must become less ‘riskaverse’ 

in its investments in emerging and 

ThE sunbElT poTEnTial (IN GIGAwATT-PEAK) 

Moderate Scenario 

2020 

developing countries,” challenged Hauff. 

Without their involvement, he says, the 

political conditions, which in many areas 

are opposed to a strong market development, 

will not change any time soon. Organizations 

alone cannot achieve this. 

Only the active and integrated solar business 

can correct prejudices about expensive 

technology linked with development 

help, which PV faces in many emerging 

countries. Hauff is convinced that the 

sunbelt countries cannot be opened up 

with a “FIT mindset.” 

Rethink required 

Instead of waiting for feed-in tariffs, the 

industry should bear in mind the advantages 

of the product for users in the developing 

and emerging countries – “as with 

other products, such as TVs and cellular 

phones, for instance, which just keep expanding 

in Africa.” Countries like China, 

India, Malaysia or Thailand are not just 

low-wage locations any more. The potential 

consumer purchasing power of heavily 

populated countries along the earth’s 

sunbelt is huge. As PV systems in sunny 

areas can already produce power cheaper 

than diesel generators, private investment 

in such goods is only a matter of time in 

periods of economic growth. 

For most analysts the rise of emerging 

countries is certain. According to a study 

by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) 

Advanced Scenario 

2020 

Paradigm-Shift- 

Scenario 2020 

Moderate Scenario 

2030 

China will replace the USA as the largest 

economy in the world in 2020. And, 

due to population growth, India will take 

over the role of the fastest growing market 

in 2020. 

According to further predictions of 

this study, China, India, Brazil and Russia, 

along with four of the current emerging 

countries, will be economically ahead 

of Germany in 2030. In Europe, only 

France and Great Britain manage to stay 

in the top ten – behind Mexico. 

For the PV industry, expansion in 

these countries could avert the risk of 

European market turbulence. Despite the 

revised growth targets of the European 

Union, in the next years a constant headwind 

against promotion can be expected 

precisely because of the empty coffers of 

the industrialized states. By contrast, in 

prospering and sun-drenched Brazil the 

industry has hardly even been active so 

far. 

But growth centers like Latin America 

will not remain a solar wilderness for 

ever. If the PV industry does not conduct 

business itself, sooner or later a large corporation 

from outside the solar world will 

come into the business – and without any 

partners from the solar industry. The 

balance of power will then shift significantly, 

not just in the world economy, but 

also within the international solar business. 

u Oliver Ristau 

Advanced Scenario 

2030 

Paradigm-Shift- 

Scenario 2030 

Argentina 1 1,7 3,3 4,2 6,9 13,8 

Brazil 3,2 5,3 10,5 11,8 19,7 39,4 

China 22,8 34,2 137 106,6 159,8 639,4 

Egypt 0,7 1,3 2,7 2 5,6 11,3 

India 12,9 19,3 38,6 45 67,5 135,1 

Indonesia 1,7 2,9 5,7 8,8 14,7 29,3 

Malaysia 1,4 2,1 4,1 5,9 8,9 17,8 

Mexico 2,2 3,2 6,5 8,1 12,2 24,3 

Saudi-Arabia 1,5 2,5 5,1 6,5 10,9 21,7 

South Africa 1,6 2,7 5,5 6 10 19,9 

Thailand 1,3 2,2 4,4 5,7 9,5 19 

Turkey 1,7 2,9 5,7 7,3 12,2 24,2 

United Arab Emirates 0,7 1,2 2,5 3,7 6,2 12,4 

All sunbelt countries analyzed 60 83 250 260 450 1130 

Source: Unlocking the Sunbelt of Photovoltaics, EPIA, Sept. 2010 

EPIA’s report “Unlocking the Sunbelt Potential of Photovoltaics” analyses the PV potential of 66 Sunbelt countries; depicted is an excerpt. The assumptions for 

the moderate and advanced scenarios are consistent with the methodology used in the EPIA/Greenpeace “Solar Generation” report, while the paradigm shift 

scenario shows what could be feasible if a number of stakeholders collaborated closely and decisively to introduce more PV. 


30 


Shell Solar brought a promise of uninterrupted electricity to India and Sri Lanka, where regular power cuts were 

the norm. Yet their abrupt exit caused anger and discontent. Orb Energy is trying to change that. 

I came, I installed… I left 

Shell Solar: Thousands of solar power systems were installed by the former Shell Solar 

in a bid to provide the average South Asian with uninterrupted electricity for their daily 

needs. The joy of green energy quickly turned to anger. What these people did not count 

on was Shell Solar bailing out and leaving them in the lurch. 

The entire talk about corporate social responsibility 

and green energy has spurred 

many companies to take a serious look 

at alternatives forms of energy for the 

world, especially the developing world, 

which needs a regular, uninterrupted energy 

supply. And who can rejoice more 

than the people of the lands who cherish 

the sun for their harvest? Imagine their 

joy when someone tells them that power 

can be generated via these rectangular 

wonders. That a solar panel will bring 

them power for their lights, radios and 

fans when the day gets stifling hot. They 

will succumb to purchasing the solar system 

in the hope of a brighter future, quite 

literally. After all, electricity is a scarce 

thing in many rural areas of India and 

Sri Lanka. 

So, Shell stepped in. It is a global energy 

group and sits comfortably as the 

leader in the Fortune Top 500 list for 

2009. Normally, Shell is seen as the oil 

and gas giant. But the company did try 

its hand at solar as well. The story happened 

three years ago. So why open an 

old can of worms? Because the problem 

still exists. Those affected are still lamenting 

and the number of affected people are 

not just a couple of hundreds but tens of 

thousands. Plus, they are not people with 

fat bank accounts either. 

Shelling the truth 

Shell dabbled in solar in the 1970s and 80s 

as a start and in the late 2000s, focusing 

on the developing world. Shell Solar offered 

to bring solar energy to the citizens 

of India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and 

Indonesia namely. Googling the name 

Shell Solar draws nothing but a few disconnected 

threads to some modules here 

and some commentary there but nothing 

solid. What does pop up is that Shell Solar 

and the World Bank became embroiled 

in a major dispute this year after the former 

refused to honor its warranties on 

solar power systems sold to the developing 

world. Quite cliché if you ask an environmentalist. 

There is probably something 

fishy when multi-million dollar 

oil-drilling mega ventures start turning 

their attention to renewables. Yes, there 

are some companies that are quite sincere 

about their desire to develop oil and solar 

power at the same time, ironic as it may 

sound. But in this case, the clichés mentioned 

became quite glaringly true. 

For Shell, mum is of course the word. 

There were no replies from the oil giant 

when probed about their elusive exit from 

the solar sector. It was former Shell Solar 

Director of Rural Operations, Damian 

Miller, who took the time to enlighten 

pv magazine on how it all went down in 

South Asia. “Shell basically sold and got 


IPhoto: Orb Energy

Photo: Pradeep Srinivas 

32 


Pradeep Srinivas was one of Shell Solar’s customers who was left in the lurch and got no service from 

Shell or Environ after his components broke down. 

out in 2007. Businesses were sold out in 

India and Sri Lanka. Shell did not make 

provisions for the new company as to how 

they will handle the aftermath of the situation.” 

Quite a helter-skelter move for 

a multi-national corporation to employ 

such a cut and run strategy. 

All cynicism aside just for a moment, 

Shell actually did decide to invest their 

interests in solar power. That was one step 

in the right direction. They embarked on 

producing modules and selling the Shell 

home systems under the rural electrification 

business scheme to developing countries 

as mentioned before. When we look 

at the systems in India and Sri Lanka, we 

are talking about more than just a handful 

of clients who bought these systems. 

Miller elaborates on the numbers, 

“Customer-base in Sri Lanka must be 

more than 50,000 and in India, 30,000. 

These are a lot of homes that are affected.” 

Those are not small figures by any means 

and certainly not numbers that can be 

easily ignored. Shell Solar sold and installed 

more than 80,000 solar systems 

in these two countries. And are all these 

systems at least still running? Not really. 

After the pull-out 

Shell Solar sold their manufacturing assets 

in Germany and in the U.S to the German 

photovoltaic producer Solar World. 

Environ Energy Global bought over 

Shell’s operations in India and Sri Lanka, 

hence taking over the Shell Solar staff, 

operations and contracts in these countries. 

Environ is a relatively small company 

to have taken over Shell Solar India. 

Miller says. “There was no oversight on 

the maintenance after they left. Shell sold 

off their Indian and Sri Lankan assets to 

a small company that had no presence in 

the two countries.” As he points out, both 

the manufacturing plants and the Indian 

and Sri South Asian businesses were 

under one company, Shell Solar so there 

may not have been that much of a need for 

papers. “Once they became two separate 

companies, with Solar World running 

manufacturing and Environ running 

the downstream sales and services, it became 

complex. The Environ people were 

unable to produce the papers that Solar 

World probably needs in order to honor 

any warranties,” elaborates Miller. 

What started to irk the customers was 

that they had to go without any service. 

According to another solar manufacturing 

and installations company who did 

not wish to be named, PV system operators 

should know that a competent professional 

installer should regularly service 

their system. It was also highlighted 

that, in particular, modules must regularly 

be cleaned of dirt and other debris 

as part of recommended ongoing maintenance, 

as otherwise the system’s performance 

can be impaired. That means the 

80,000 installations and their owners can 

expect Environ, who took the responsibility 

over from Shell Solar for the India 

and Sri Lankan home systems to service 

their systems. This is, however, ladies and 

gentlemen, not happening! 

Environ, we have a problem 

Let’s examine an example of a warranty 

issue situation (pvi 10/2010). First Solar 

got feedback on modules malfunctioning 

in 2008. The problem sites were identified 

and the system partners, whom ac- 

cording to First Solar Managing Director, 

Stephan Hansen, are the people with the 

best knowledge of the site, alerted the 

manufacturer. First Solar made site-specific 

plans and thereafter replaced the 

faulty modules and paid for the labor and 

logistics. This was a case of module failure. 

But in the end, all was settled and no 

one left in limbo. 

Customers spoken to got close to nothing 

in terms of maintenance services. 

Some things went wrong with their installations 

and they tried calling Environ 

(who now fit the profile of a system partner 

for the ex-Shell Solar). Environ’s job 

would have then been to investigate this 

feedback and come up with a solution. 

However, neither Environ nor Shell 

Solar were reachable. At least the latter 

does not exist anymore - but where 

is Environ? Environ was not available to 

provide any comments despite repeated 

attempts to reach them per email and 

telephone. pv magazine went to their Singapore 

office (at the address stated on the 

company website) in order to hear their 

take on accusations against them for failing 

to provide service for the systems they 

took over from Shell Solar. The Environ 

office did not exist and the address was 

occupied by an insurance agency. Another 

fruitless attempt at contact. 

In reality 

Director of mNXT Consulting and Services, 

Pradeep Srinivas, is an example of 

a customer who saw red. His house has a 

1.5 kilowatt installation. It cost Srinivas 

more than 350,000 Indian Rupees or approximately 

5,700 euros to set up. This is 

quite a substantial amount in India, but a 

worthy investment for someone who believes 

in solar energy. Solar is the primary 

source of power for his home in Bangalore. 

He depends on solar power 24/7 as 

he has no utility power supply. He consulted 

Shell Solar and they came by to 

install the system on his house rooftop. 

After three to four months, the system 

had problems, typically the parts and not 

the panels. Shell Solar did come by to service 

the system. Thereafter, a year went 

by and Srinivas’s home solar system suddenly 

came to a halt as all the electronics 

failed. He spoke to Shell Solar and this 

was when he started to quickly realize 

that he was about to face a bigger problem 

for having depended on them. 

“I was told in no uncertain terms that 

they would not be in a position to sup- 


port me, with or without a warranty. 

It was almost like telling me I can perhaps 

consult God but not Shell Solar anymore,” 

elaborates a frustrated Srinivas to 

pv magazine. This was the point he realized 

that he had to do something as he 

had no home electricity and Shell Solar 

was already packing its coffers to leave 

India. He had no choice but to go for another 

system. He thus became one of the 

first few people to install an Orb Energy 

system. 

Orb Energy was founded and developed 

by Miller after he left Shell Solar just 

before it became defunct. Miller was soon 

to discover that Srinivas was not going to 

be the only ex-Shell Solar client who hit 

a dead-end when the system failed. More 

and more ex-Shell Solar customers started 

turning up, needing some sort of service 

after the company completely wiped its 

presence off the sub-continent. Some 

of them turned to Orb Energy. “People 

get service where they can and they can 

be quite genius about it. Not that local 

technicians cannot handle it but maybe 

they do not have the detailed know-how. 

They can learn but they won’t really know 

when a charge controller breaks down or 

when a module laminate problem pops 

up. There is only so much a technician 

can do,” stated Miller. 

Which is true. After all, customers 

should not have to go on a wild goose 

chase for PV technicians after having installed 

a system. They did not buy their 

panels second hand at a street corner 

but through proper channels, with correct 

paperwork and via a global brand. 

Orb Energy started to provide services to 

hopeless customers who were left in the 

lurch with systems that did not work. As 

Miller adds, “There are module failures, 

as well as BOS (balance of system) failures 

due to lack of maintenance.” Add 

that to anything and everything able go 

wrong with a system due to lack of maintenance 

and soon you have an entire list 

of issues facing these ex-Shell Solar customers. 

“Sometimes, the customers pay, 

sometimes, we do it for free,” Miller continues. 

Once again, numbers run up to 

80,000 in India and Sri Lanka to remind 

the reader of the magnitude. Shell Solar, 

in response to this accusation, released 

one statement to the UK newspaper The 

Guardian, denying all charges. According 

to the report by The Guardian, the 


Shell spokesperson in Hague stated, “In 

October 2007, Shell sold Shell Solar…. to 

Environ Global., specifically in order to 

protect the customer interests, the terms 

of liabilities, including warranty issues.” 

Thus blame was shoved over to Environ. 

Chased by banks 

Banks in India finance customers who 

want to go solar. Orb Energy uses a 

branch network, with 88 branches, to sell 

solar systems. Miller aims to make it hassle-free 

for the customers. His company 

teams up with banks, in order to provide 

the support for customers from rural 

areas. There is a fair amount of solar finance 

available for solar projects in India 

right now. But most customers are from 

rural backgrounds and require guidance 

in attaining a loan for the system. 

Orb Energy holds the customers’ hands 

in the entire process. This hand holding 

and support did not come from Shell 

Solar though, at least not after the home 

systems were installed, as got their payments 

and left. 

Banks in India have not been very happy 

about the Shell Solar exit. “In India, I sit 

in meetings with banks and the banks 

Advertisement

Photo: Orb Energy 

34 


The Orb Energy solar technicians and consultants 

are trying their best to help ex-Shell customers. 

are ranting about customers who are not 

getting services,” laments Miller. Minutes 

of a meeting document with Cauvery 

Kalpatharu Grameena Bank reveals 

what the bank’s Chief Manager K. Gurumurthy 

had to say about the loan situation 

with the ex-Shell Solar customers. 

He says that poor after-sales service by 

Environ Energy Corporation India resulted 

in large over-dues. The customers 

are not paying their installments for 

the home solar systems they took loans to 

purchase from Shell Solar. After all, what 

motivation do people have to return their 

loans if their investments are just gathering 

cobwebs? 

The bank also contacted Environ and 

the regional manager of Environ Karnataka 

apparently told the Cauvery Kalpatharu 

Grameena Bank that the problem 

lies only in old solar loans financed 

by the bank and that they will provide 

a toll-free service telephone number for 

further service pertaining to the solar 

units. Toll!, wonderful, as the Germans 

say. A toll-free service line! Where has the 

service been all along? And how is a tollfree 

line going to help the system owners 

lamenting for aeons now about the promised 

uninterrupted electricity supply? 

Sri Lanka’s DFCC Bank acts as the administrative 

unit of the Renewable En- 

DAmIAn mIllEr, Orb EnErgy CEO 

Damian Miller is an expert on solar energy in emerging 

markets. After finishing his PhD in 1998, he joined Shell Solar, 

becoming Director of Rural Operations and establishing solar 

subsidiaries in India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia. 

He also implemented a large-scale solar project in China and 

managed joint ventures in Morocco and South Africa. During 

this time, he worked closely with multilateral and bilateral 

development agencies and emerging market governments 

to help grow local solar markets, overseeing the connection 

of more than 125,000 solar homes. He set up Orb Energy in 

India at the end of 2006. He recently published the book 

Selling Solar. 

ergy for Rural Economic Development 

(RERED) Project. The bank’s Assistant 

Vice President of Project Management, 

Nalin Karunatileka told pv magazine, 

“The RERED Project, together with 

the previous ESD Project has funded 

over 128,000 Solar Home Systems in Sri 

Lanka, and Shell Solar installed a considerable 

number of these systems which 

were provided with at least a 10 year warranty 

on the solar panels. Currently Environ 

Energy is not replacing defective 

panels and many customers are affected. 

We are not in a position to help customers 

who complain to us.” He adds, “All 

we want is for one or both of them to alleviate 

the plight of the many innocent 

rural customers who bought the systems 

believing the promises and commitments 

made at the time of sale.” According to a 

statement by the World Bank, about 700 

systems appear to have failed already. 

There are a number of solar systems gathering 

dust and the wrath of the customers 

who bought them with their average 

salaries. 

Miller states, “The poor are affected 

the most. They spent approximately 30 

percent of their annual income to purchase 

these systems and if the modules 

fail within the period where they stand 

under guarantee and Shell Solar is no longer 

around to help them, then it is also 

the reputation of the solar industry that 

gets damaged. That was the reason why 

I made all that noise at the time of the 

pull out because I felt that it would damage 

the solar market. Sri Lanka used to 

be such a great solar market and I think 

this is one big reason why the Sri Lankan 

solar sector in the country is now at such 

a standstill.” 

We can second that. pv magazine 

spoke with Jasmeenah Hussain, a programmer 

who was toying with the idea 

Photo: Damian Miller 

for solar panels for her house in Colombo, 

Sri Lanka. “I initially thought it 

would be a good source of clean energy 

for my house. However, due to my work 

commitments overseas in the last years, 

I had postponed the idea. It has been a 

blessing in disguise as Shell Solar has now 

left Colombo and the company that took 

over is not very active. I have heard from 

some people that their systems are not 

working and that they are disappointed 

with the lack of service. In fact, one even 

told me that the kerosene lamp, as polluting 

as it is, is probably more reliable than 

solar power for him at the moment.” Expectable 

frustrations from the affected. 

And most bad publicity for solar energy. 

Anil Cabraal, former Senior Energy 

Specialist at the World Bank, had previously 

written a report to Shell demanding 

action, stating, “I would like Shell to 

honor these commitments. We are not 

talking about millions of dollars here, 

but hundreds of thousands.” Hundreds 

of thousands a Fortuna Top 500 company 

can surely help fork out. Cabraal told pv 

magazine he was unable to offer further 

comments on this issue as he was no longer 

working for the World Bank. 

On its feet again 

There is barely any news of solar coming 

out of Sri Lanka these days. In India, 

other companies like Orb Energy have 

started to push the solar sector. The government’s 

Solar Mission Plan has also 

boosted the public support. What Orb 

Energy has been providing is a service 

that can uplift the disappointed morale 

of those at their wit’s end with their failing 

systems. However, there is a large 

amount of responsibility lying with the 

initiator, the installer, the system operator 

that must be upheld, especially when 

it comes to firstly green energy and secondly 

developing nations. 

People have had to dig deep into their 

pockets, get loans and act in hope. Breaking 

these trusts and hopes is something 

not only bad for the companies involved, 

but that also reflects badly on the industry. 

It will only be a matter of time before 

the issue is forgotten again as there 

is only so much noise the average person 

can make before switching to another 

service provider or giving up on solar altogether. 

Particularly when the company 

no longer exists and the ones who took 

over, have a phantom office and toll-free 

line. u Shamsiah Ali-Oettinger 


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36 


Greenwashing is cheaper than voluntary social responsibility. But it can also come out dirty in the wash. 

End of the close season? 

Social responsibility: The solar industry has to get used to stronger public headwinds 

when it comes to socially acceptable production standards. What is known as Corporate 

Social Responsibility (CSR) will play a more important role for photovoltaics companies 

going forward. But the question remains – does CSR pay? 

Green is the new black. And why? Because 

it is increasingly becoming the trend setting 

color in the consumer world. As consumers’ 

ideologies incline towards the 

ecological and as CSR-protective organizations 

sprout like mushrooms after the 

rain, the need for the solar sector to take 

a serious look at getting that stamp of socio-ecological 

approval seems dire. 

Here is how the European Commission 

defines CSR: A concept whereby companies 

integrate social and environmental 

concerns in their business operations 

and in their interaction with their stakeholders 

on a voluntary basis. Going green 

does not only entail the fact that the production 

cycle has to be sustainable, but it 

also means that the social welfare of the 

employees needs to be taken into consideration. 

Issues like basic salaries, safety and employee 

satisfaction to name a few. Some 

critics of CSR go as far as to say that it 

is nothing but superficial window-dressing 

and distracts from the fundamental 

economic role of businesses. Nevertheless, 

one cannot allow employers to whip 

their workers to produce modules faster 

as they might have done back in the days 

when ‘fundamental economic roles of 

businesses’ were taken quite literally. 

When talking about the solar sector, it 

seems rather meaningless having to discuss 

CSR. Should it not be an unwritten 

rule in an industry that produces clean 

energy? This already elevates the sector 

above, say, the oil sector. You would be 

surprised. 

From high up on the Oder Tower, 

Frankfurt/Oder looks like a completely 

normal city: buildings, wide streets and a 

big bridge over the river that once served 

as a border station between Frankfurt/ 

Oder and Słubice in Poland. But look 

out in all four directions and it’s only the 

West that entices, says Siegfried Wied, 

Secretary of the IG Metall trade union in 

East Brandenburg and responsible for the 

local solar industry. “What I often hear 

from employees at First Solar are things 

like: I won’t be cheated. I’m not worth 


Photo: MVV Energiedienstleistungen GmbH

anything in the East. So, I’ll have a look 

at Stuttgart, Munich or Hamburg – but 

I’m not staying here.” And the reason is 

the working conditions, including twelve 

hour shifts and lower wages in Germany’s 

East. Responding to queries from pv 

magazine, First Solar did point out that 

it pays above-average in comparison to 

the East German metal industry, though 

declined to disclose any specific salary 

amounts for its employees. 

First Solar is no unique case in the 

trade union’s view. So far the industry 

sector has no collective wage agreement. 

Martina Winkelmann coordinates trade 

union activities for the solar industry at 

IG Metall’s headquarters in Frankfurt/ 

Main in the southwest part of Germany. 

For employees working in production, it 

is “often” the case “that they cannot even 

live on their salary but have to register 

for Germany’s Hartz IV program welfare 

benefits,” she complains. 

At first glance, this seems to buck a 

trend that has become increasingly important 

in German companies in recent 

years: Corporate Social Responsibility 

(CSR), or a company’s commitment to 

consider social and environmental con- 

SOLAR ENERGY: 

Competent, environmentally aware and sustainable 


Germany’s best employers 2010 in the “mid-size company” category. The “Great Place to Work Institute” 

(Germany) ranks First Solar as number 19. 

cerns when conducting business. 1970 saw 

Milton Friedman citing profit as a company’s 

only purpose, whereas since the 80s, 

there has been “an increasingly discussed 

concept of capital-based companies’ social 

responsibility that has reached an alltime 

peak,” writes Professor Stephan A. 

Jansen from Friedrichshafen for the business 

magazine Brand. “A company’s ‘so- 

cial competence’ is becoming a buy argument 

when prices and products are 

compared.” In a global study conducted 

by the PR agency Edelmann in 2007, 86 

percent of those surveyed said their consumer 

habits are changing and that they 

prefer to buy other brands if these help to 

improve the world. This is the optimistic 

view of things, one that assumes compa- 

Advertisement 

Welser Profile Deutschland GmbH 

Edisonstraße 23 • D-59199 Bönen / Germany 

Tel (+49 2383) 914-0 • de@welser.com • www.welser.com 

Photo: Winfried Mausolf

Photo: First Solar, Inc. 

38 


First Solar is currently the preferential negotiating 

partner of the IG Metall trade union. 

nies are increasingly being forced to join 

in on a public dialogue about their products. 

The threat of their demise makes 

them switch to more socially acceptable 

and environmental manufacturing 

methods. 

The other more pessimistic view is 

expressed by journalist Kathrin Hartmann 

from Munich, former editor at 

the Frankfurter Rundschau and NEON, 

who recently published a book with the 

title “End of Story Hour.” She may have 

a better explanation for why it might 

have actually been wasted money for 

solar companies to pay their employees 

better, considered at least in terms of a 

strictly economic cost-benefit analysis. 

She does not believe that most consumers 

pay attention to how companies produce 

their products. She says an industry’s 

green image is more important and 

is also achieved through CSR measures. 

“What matters is the idea that a lot is happening 

today, and a little bit better is better 

than nothing. This is enough for consumers 

to have a clear conscience when 

making a purchase.” 

In this regard, the solar industry’s 

products already have a built-in sales 

point. Customers are going to be less 

interested in solar production conditions 

than those of supermarket products, 

at least until such time as the media 

more widely reports the issue. That the 

press has hardly written about the subject 

has again to do with the solar industry’s 

good image. “Lidl (a German supermarket 

chain) has a bad reputation from 

the get-go. But for companies that one assumes 

do good, people are not so critical 

– and solar energy is a good thing in 

principal.” 

Hartmann’s skepticism about CSR has 

to do with its vague criteria. In fact, a differentiation 

must be made between two 

different forms of CSR. Only one of them 

really involves better social and ecological 

standards for products. The other 

blurs the line with greenwashing, or the 

cover-up of harmful activities. This especially 

applies to cases where a company 

promotes its social activities, but its actual 

core business remains unchanged. 

An example of this is the “Companius” 

initiative from the energy company RWE, 

which also operates nuclear power plants 

in Biblis and Emsland. RWE employees 

participate in projects in local schools or 

in nature and environment programs, 

all of which is marketed to the region’s 

media. RWE essentially steers the debate 

on nuclear projects toward positive topics. 

Great Place to Work 

Dealing with employees is one of a company’s 

core activities. But it is usually 

more difficult to detect CSR greenwashing 

in this domain. One thing is for sure, 

both trade unions and the media view 

working hours, minimum wage, collective 

bargaining coverage and the election 

of employee representatives as issues 

that are potent enough to create a scandal 

about working conditions. And all these 

differ from the issues viewed as important 

by juries awarding various CSR distinctions. 

This is how the organic supermarket 

Alnatura placed among the top three 

companies in the category “most sustainable 

company” for the German Sustainability 

Award 2009. The award was 

partly justified as follows: “Regarding 

social sustainability, Alnatura impresses 

with its high employee diversity, flexible 

working time models, modern workplaces 

and a high proportion of education. 

Furthermore, it should be noted 

that employees benefit from the company’s 

success. The company’s above-average 

growth last year resulted in employees 

receiving a value-added interest in the 

form of a shopping voucher.” 

The fact that Alnatura does not pay 

standard wages went unmentioned. It 

was only when the media uncovered this 

fact months later that the chain began, 

within a few days, backpedaling. Standard 

wages will now go into effect this 

October. Still, Alnatura is among the finalists 

for the Sustainability Award 2010, 

sponsored in part by companies such as 

Coca-Cola and Solarworld. 

The “Great Place to Work Institute” in 

Cologne ranked First Solar number 19 

of Germany’s 100 best employers in the 

“mid-size business” category. Siegried 

Wied of IG Metall has his doubts on how 

representatively the survey was conducted. 

“We asked colleagues: Were you 

surveyed? A few said that someone came 

by and there was a questionnaire. And 

there were a few pointed remarks saying: 

if they had been here, we would have told 

them a few things.” 

But if information from “Great Place 

to Work” is true, then about half of the 

employees were randomly selected for the 

survey and could send in the questionnaires 

anonymously to Cologne. So the 

problem must be with the methodology. 

The question of commensurate pay was 

only one of 62 questions. Equal weight 

was given to respondents’ agreement with 

statements such as “Special occasions are 

celebrated here” and “I am proud to tell 

others that I work here.” First Solar also 

publicly promotes the award and uses it 

to skirt questions about IG Metall’s criticism 

of its working conditions. 

Multiple returns 

The fact that there is no real stringency 

on the CSR criteria must be quite upsetting 

for companies that seriously strive 

to uphold social and ecological standards. 

North Hessian inverter manufacturer 

SMA not only scored second place 

with “Great Place to Work” 2010 (in the 

2,000 to 5,000 employee category), IG 

Metall also considers it to be an industry 

role model. SMA’s wages are based on 

the metal industry collective wage agreements. 

Contract workers also receive the 

same salary. 

“It is really difficult to come up with 

specific cost figures here,” says company 

spokesperson Volker Wasgindt. “But 

we get multiple returns on the money 

and time we invest in our company culture 

through committed employees who 

strongly identify with the company.” It 

is only with such committed employees 

that SMA can maintain and develop its 

high degree of innovation. “Also in competing 

for qualified staff, any extra costs 

pay for themselves.” 


SMA will only become a real role model 

when there is more public discussion 

about working conditions in the solar industry. 

The close season the solar industry 

has enjoyed might gradually be over, 

as became clear in the news coverage on 

the cuts in the EEG (German Renewable 

Energy Sources Act) this year, when 

public opinion turned mostly against the 

solar industry. Until now, the media was 

focused on working conditions in consumer 

goods. But that’s just a habit. Journalists 

travel in herds, as they themselves 

admit. 

Canadian Solar’s Chief Executive Officer, 

Shawn Qu tells pv magazine that CSR 

is not an issue that can be or should be 

ignored by companies in the solar sector. 

Like how SMA invests in its employees, 

Canadian Solar also sees its staff as 

shareholders and important assets of the 

company. Their welfare is quintessentially 

crucial as Qu elaborates. 

On top of that, being involved in the 

community and society is a role multinational 

corporations have to embrace. 

Qu validates that by stating the contributions 

that Canadian Solar has made to 

Haiti for example. He stresses that as a 

multinational company that is making 

profits, in the clean energy sector, it only 

seems logical for such companies to also 

think about channeling some of these 

profits into areas of society that require 

the funding. 

What firms like SMA and Canadian 

Solar are trying to do is more than greenwashing. 

The relationship that they are 

trying to establish with the employees 

and the contributions they are trying 

to make speak for themselves when the 

companies working environments and 

the feedback from the workers are heard 

or examined. It is basically good publicity 

for the company. And along the way, 

people are made happy and some change 

is also made to the environment and its 

inhabitants. In the end, CSR represents a 

win-win situation. 

Springer’s Journal of Business Ethics’ 

issue on “The European Identity in business 

and social ethics states” that transparency 

is a crucial condition to implement 

a CSR policy based on the reputation 

mechanism. Not every solar company is 

willing to explicitly state on their websites 

the CSR conditions in their companies 

are and what mistakes have already 

happened and what they are doing to rectify 

these issues. 


RWE employees promote nature and environmental efforts, making for good PR. It certainly looks 

better than articles about RWE’s nuclear power plants. 

End in sight 

In addition to this comes the fact that 

until now, journalists have had to rely 

on their own research. It was hardly ever 

the case that trade unions or non-governmental 

organizations provided them 

with information. But an end to that is 

foreseeable, even though IG Metall is still 

following an in-house rule. “Maybe the 

subject isn’t a scandal yet because we are 

also trying to discuss the wage situation 

with employers. If this doesn’t work and 

the situation worsens through pressure 

from the competition, I can imagine that 

the topic will boil over as with Lidl,” says 

Martina Winkelmann from IG Metall in 

Frankfurt. 

Ethical Consumer, a UK publication 

that concerns itself over the truth behind 

the supply chain of products and 

provides buyer guides, released its latest 

buyers’ guide to solar PV panels for the 

home. The magazine examined the CSR 

policies, both ethical and environmental, 

of companies that supplied solar panels. 

Ethical Consumer looks at three aspects 

that it deems as crucial, falling 

under the CSR umbrella: employee conditions, 

pollution and dubious activities, 

which include involvement in other undesirable 

sectors via investments and so 

on, for example, in the arms trade. 

This information is then presented to 

the consumer who then gets to make that 


choice on the solar panel that he wants 

placed on his rooftop. The fact that such 

a report actually gets into the consumer’s 

hands means that companies in the 

sector have to start realizing that being a 

green energy producer does not immunize 

them from the corporate and social 

responsibilities. 

Getting involved 

Involvement has to nevertheless increase 

in the industry. NGO Globalization critics 

like the Berlin-based WEED are also 

considering getting involved in the issue. 

One of the role models here is the U.S. Silicon 

Valley Toxics Coalition, which published 

a “Green Jobs Platform for Solar” 

in 2009 that has been co-signed by 29 organizations 

thus far, including the renowned 

Friends of the Earth. 

The platform also says that “worker 

rights are protected, including the right to 

organize.” This forces companies to face 

the question of whether they will get on 

board soon to promote social standards 

or if they will try to get by with greenwashing. 

If the public no longer views 

solar industry companies as pioneers 

in the conversion to sustainability but 

rather just like any other industry, that 

same public will treat them accordingly 

and any favorable opinion they might 

have once enjoyed will quickly become a 

thing of the past. u Martin Reeh 

Photo: RWE AG 

39

40 


The meeting of the glass and solar worlds generated excitement and the possibilities of new ventures together. 

The message on the glass translates as “this facade generates electricity’.” 

A successful partnership 

Glass meets solar: With the successful closure of two trade fairs pertaining to two mega- 

industries, glass and solar, the outcome between the two is potentially harmonious. 

Both industries have only to gain from one another’s strengths, should they choose to 

see it that way. 

Both have been ignoring each other for 

a while now. Somehow unwilling to establish 

a concrete relationship. However, 

Düsseldorf, Germany, brought them together 

in October this year. This coming 

together doubtless reaped benefits 

for both industries no doubt, enabling 

dialogue. The trade fairs, solarpeq and 

glasstec ran side by side between the 

28.09.2010 and 01.10.2010, enabling professionals 

from both industries to explore 

the possibilities of cooperation and innovation. 

The solarpeq conference, “Solar 

meets Glass” literally put the two in one 

room. The roadmap towards joint ventures, 

product developments and harmonized 

applications were explored. With 

nearly 200 participants from Germany 

and globally, this was the first junction of 

meeting for the industries’ professionals. 

As Hans Werner Reinhard, executive director 

of Messe Düsseldorf, describes it, 

“We achieved an important milestone.” 

Why, however, did it take this long? 

The glass sector is a long-established 

industry dating back to Mesopotamian 

times in 3500 B.C. The solar sector, in 

contrast, is a newbie. It is young and developing 

at an astounding rate. The glass 

sector has been rather solitary in this 

sense, barely trying to cross over into the 

photovoltaics sector. As Heiko Hessenkemper, 

Professor and Managing Director 

at the Technical University Bergakademie 

Freiberg puts it to pv magazine, 

“The glass industry has formed an oligopoly. 

They have not been interested in 

research and development for the solar 

sector.” Understandable, of course. After 

all, the industry has its roots quite deep in 

its own science and needs. Hessenkemper 

was also one of the speakers for the “Solar 

meets Glass” conference. He quoted fellow 

speaker, Scott Thomsen, Group Vice 

President of Guardian Industries as stating 

that the PV market is still not important 

enough for the glass people to change 

their attitudes. 

Nevertheless, the solar sector is new 

and thus, the interest is also still bubbling 

at the surface. That was precisely why the 

idea for solar to meet glass at this point of 

time was a smart and crucial move. Looking 

away from the core clients, the automobile 

and the construction sectors, the 

glass industry is increasingly seeing the 

need for solar glass standardization as demands 

at the fairs echoed. The opportunities 

are wide and plenty. The glass component 

in solar has always been a hefty price 


Photos: Messe Düsseldorf

factor. Solar glass prices have remained 

where they started a few years ago when 

the PV market started rising. The problem 

is the fact that knowledge exchange 

between the two industries has been little 

and PV manufacturers have been in a 

bit of pickle trying to handle glass in their 

production. And for them to understand 

and handle glass better, they need cooperation 

from the glass side. The key word 

remains cost competitiveness. Solar glass 

has to become cost-competitive. 

The fair also saw a significant number 

of glass suppliers molding themselves to 

fit into the solar business. Dutch company 

F-Glass are working on this and 

giving the solar sector hope for the same 

direction with other suppliers. Hessenkemper 

thought about things the other 

way; how the solar sector can contribute 

to the glass industry. He offers his 

own suggestion. “The PV market should 

switch the cooperation to smaller companies 

or should think about how their 

needs can be satisfied by producing their 

own glass with the technology supplying 

companies and research institutions. We 

are following this strategy in a network 

called Solavis which is aiming to produce 

Reinhard believes the dialogue between solar 

and glass industries can be further intensified. 

glass with significant cost reduction and 

quality improvements.” 

Technology sharing is of course one 

way of working together. And “Solar 

meets Glass”, provided the platform for 

the exploration of an exchange avenue. 

The solar sector cannot stand by and 


expect the glass industry to bend over 

backwards to serve them either. Yes, the 

demand from the PV sector is ever increasing 

and glass manufacturers can 

step in and take advantage of the current 

demand, indeed are doing so. Nevertheless, 

reverse contributions are also a 

possibility. How can solar helping glass? 

One way is via logistics. Transportation 

of modules and glass are not all that different. 

Grenzebach, a German company, 

was present to show their handling system 

that uses a supporting gas enabling 

contact-less transport. A technology that 

can easily cross over industries. 

Nevertheless, such exchanges have to 

intensify. The conference was definitely 

a stepping-stone towards cooperation. As 

Hessenkemper adds, “The biggest obstacle 

standing in the way of cooperation is 

the structure of the global players in the 

field of glass and the fear of the PV industry 

creating their own glass strategy.” 

Fear has to be removed and be replaced 

with possibility. The bridge is built; now it 

has to be crossed. As Reinhard concludes, 

“We will help to ensure that this happens 

with further events.” u 

Shamsiah Ali-Oettinger 

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42 


The emerging British solar industry, hungry for information at the Photovoltaics Quality Briefing 2010 conference. 

Best of British 

PV Quality Briefing 2010: In its first conference in the United Kingdom, Solarpraxis 

focused on the key issue of quality. Even in the fledgling British market, plenty of positive 

noises were to be heard. 

Ensuring that a PV installation will perform 

as anticipated over a lifespan of 20 

to 25 years is critical, not only for the financial 

viability of the project but for the 

credibility and reputation of the technology 

itself. Attaining high levels of quality 

is important in a relatively mature market, 

which has a trained workforce, established 

companies and substantial consumer 

experience. Yet quality awareness 

is perhaps even more essential in a fastgrowing 

new market. It’s important to be 

aware of some of the issues that can arise 

if quality is compromised. 

The UK market has been blossoming 

since the April 2010 introduction of a 

feed-in tariff, which seems to have sur- 

vived the Government’s recent spending 

cuts largely unscathed, although a review 

is due in 2012. Given the current healthy 

state of the market, London was the natural 

location for Solarpraxis’ first conference 

dedicated to quality issues in PV, the 

Photovoltaics Quality Briefing 2010. 

Ten thousand new systems have been 

installed in the United Kingdom since 

April this year, adding 25 megawatts of 

new power to the 30 installed during the 

15 years. As such, it was natural for some 

of the speakers to provide specific background 

and insights into the UK market 

and its operation, including the certification 

system for small systems and their 

installers. 

‘Bankability’ of projects – especially 

large projects – was referred to again and 

again. The presentation prepared by Solarpraxis 

Chairman Karl-Heinz Remmers 

– which he unfortunately could not 

deliver in person – set out ‘three pillars’ 

of bankability of PV system components. 

Firstly, there is proof of technology, including 

the manufacturer’s product certification, 

availability of independent 

checks on both the manufacturing process 

and systems operating in the field. 

Secondly, legal and warranty matters; 

warranties need to be in line with a European 

or international framework, reinsurance 

of warranties should possibly 

be considered, and warranties should be 


Photos: Charles Glover

transparent – for example, available in 

the local language of the market. Thirdly 

comes the financial reliability of the company, 

its technical background and general 

track record. 

At the certification session, chaired by 

Lars Waldmann of Schott Solar, the audience 

heard from three specialist testing 

and certification bodies, each of whom 

broadly agreed. Willi Vaassen of TÜV 

Rheinland detailed the kind of testing to 

which his organization subjects modules 

and other equipment, and showed examples 

of module failure in the field and in 

the lab. And he also warned about the 

limitations of certification: after all, generally 

a sample of ten or so modules are 

taken for lab testing. Yet there is no way of 

knowing for sure whether these are truly 

representative, or whether others might 

in fact even use differently sourced materials. 

The message that emerged from several 

presentations was that certification 

is playing an important role but it has its 

limitations. A certificate can be used as 

a guide, but not really a guarantee, and 

that makes it important for buyers and 

developers to understand what different 

certificates mean in practice. And while 

some leading module manufacturers 

are achieving standards that far exceed 

those required by the certification bodies, 

others meet only the minimum requirements, 

meaning buyers have to be 

alert. Some modules do for 30 years; others 

only two. Problems with cracking, delamination 

or hotspots do occur. 

As well as physical problems there are 

performance issues. Some features remain 

hard to pin down, such as precise 

power output of modules. Of course test 

conditions are key here. Especially in a 

climate such as that in the UK, it’s important 

to look out for performance in 

low light levels, which can fall by between 

five and almost 20 percent compared with 

test conditions. 

Jürgen Arp of PVLab Germany explained 

that one of the difficulties caused 

by the industry’s rapid growth is that a lot 

of relatively inexperienced new manufacturers 

are, in turn, often purchasing materials 

from equally inexperienced suppliers. 

He explained how it’s the choice of 

material that makes up most of the price 

difference between modules at the different 

ends of the price spectrum, and that 

quality materials do make a difference – 

essentially, you get what you pay for. 

As important in many ways as the 

quality of equipment itself is the quality 

of its installation, starting with the planning 

process to ensure optimum site and 

position. Whatever the installation size, 

good planning is vital to a project’s successful 

implementation. Yet two speakers 

at the event, David Hardy of vogt solar 

and John Schroeder of Goldbeck, focused 

on large projects. They both made it clear 

just how rigorous the planning and construction 

of any large-scale plant must 

be. And David Hardy took the audience 

through the calculation of how a loss of 

just one percent in output on a five megawatts 

solar plant can lead to a loss in in- 


come of 15,000 pounds each year. Detail 

matters. 

Many in the audience were interested 

to hear about requirements in the German 

finance sector. In Germany, it is 

common for yield assessment reports 

and yield forecast reports to be provided 

by independent companies. One hot 

topic, which came up in the final discussion 

session, has to do with the creation 

in countries such as Germany of “white 

lists” of products from certain manufacturers 

which the finance community is 

most willing to finance. Does this mean 

that less discerning markets might only 

be offered goods that do not make it to the 

white lists in mature markets? The expert 

consensus seemed to be they might. 

However, Professor Nicola Pearsall, an 

expert in long-term performance of photovoltaic 

systems who spoke during the 

session on monitoring, stressed that although 

quality problems could indeed 

be experienced, PV systems function for 

the large part well and with little need for 

maintenance. The main thing is to maximise 

system output throughout the installation’s 

operating lifetime. 

Underlying all the presentations, of 

course, was the main conference theme 

of quality, addressed from the perspectives 

of manufacturer, customer, system 

operator and financier. Rather than being 

frightened away from the photovoltaics 

sector, potential investors just need to 

bear in mind that wise precautions and 

quality information are important parts 

of going into PV. u Jane Miller 

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44 


Solar panels are the ideal solution for the use of electrical devices far away from electricity grids. 

Smart off-grid solutions 

Off-grid PV: An overview of the challenges and opportunities of off-grid PV from 

Phocos AG, one of the leading manufacturers of solar charge controllers and components 

for independent solar power systems. 

As more and more electrical devices are 

used far away from the electricity grids, 

the need for reliable, cost-efficient, and 

weather-independent off-grid power solutions 

is rising dramatically. The most 

important markets are rural electrification 

in developing countries, a wide variety 

of industrial and leisure applications, 

and a growing number of solar streetlights. 

Many of these applications call for 

new flexible and intelligent power management 

and charge control solutions. 

Users of electrical systems who live 

in remote areas need expert information 

and support to find their individual 

off-grid power solution. This offers tremendous 

opportunities for system integrators, 

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providers to offer entire systems with full 

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application needs. This is even 

more important as the requirements differ 

greatly. Expertise in the off-grid power 

field create a significant competitive edge 

in this fast growing market. 

Rural electrification 

1.4 billion people worldwide do not have 

access to a power grid, states the analysis 

on energy poverty published by the 

International Energy Agency, UNDP 

and UNIDO. To meet the United Nations 

Millennium Development Goals, 

experts calculate a total investment volume 

of 756 billion U.S. dollars. 

Getting power to rural locations far 

away from the power-grid is not only 

a financial challenge but also a major 

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In Africa and South America, 


Photos: Phocos AG

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46 


power is expected to be generated mainly 

from the sun, using solar modules, while 

coastal regions are predicted to use additional 

wind power for covering their 

needs. As both of these renewable power 

sources are intermittent resources, suitable 

power storage technologies and intelligent 

power management solutions 

are needed. 

In rural homes, power is mainly required 

for operating electrical devices 

like lights, communication equipment, 

radios, mobile phones, TVs and other 

household equipment like refrigerators. 

For many people, access to electrical 

power means a significant improvement 

of living conditions. With electricity, the 

evenings can be used for reading and 

learning, safety is increased and food 

can be stored longer. Private households 

in developing countries typically consume 

between two and 300 watt hours a 

day, which can be easily be generated by 

small solar home systems. 

Energy saving appliances also play a 

major role in complete off-grid power 

solutions for rural applications. Energy 

saving LED lamps with built-in batteries 

that can be charged by solar modules, 

like the Pico lamp by Phocos, open doors 

into a large range of usage possibilities. 

The Pico lamp features three light levels 

and an integrated charge controller that 

will accept direct charging from a solar 

module, a solar or car battery or an AC 

adapter. A USB port serves as a charging 

station for electrical devices (e.g., mobile 

phones). Energy saving refrigerators or 

TVs can also be part of a complete system. 

Wholesalers and system integrators 

offer the entire off-grid power solution 

spectrum matched to meet individual 

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Industrial applications 

Other relevant photovoltaic applications 

in rural areas are: supplying power to 

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facilities, telecom stations, and also 

to small manufacturers operating their 

machinery (e.g. water pumps, desalination 

systems or water purification systems). 

In these cases, energy consumption 

has a big variation from 100 watt 

hours to several tens of kilowatt hours, 

depending on the applications. 

Customized, intelligent design enables 

the complete system to operate with high 

cost effectiveness and low maintenance 

over long periods of time. Appropriate 

A mobile solar station set up in Tibet by Phocos in July 2010. 

solar modules and batteries play a major 

role in these solutions, as do energy saving, 

long lasting appliances, and most of 

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Users demand easy operation and installation 

and the possibility of remote-controlling 

the complete system by the system 

operator or service provider. 

Reliably supplying power to industrial 

applications requires intelligent power 

storage and management. A good example 

is a telecommunication system installation 

that Phocos equipped in Tibet. The 

system is located at a very remote location 

at the end of a bumpy road far away 

from the power grid. Daily energy consumption 

is in the range of one to over 

ten kilowatt hours. 

To enable the reliable and cost effective 

unattended operation of the system 

over long periods of time it was specifi- 

cally adapted to the local conditions and 

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it also uses wind and diesel generators 

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Efficient energy management is provided 

by an intelligent Modular Power 

Management system (MPM) designed by 

Phocos. It enables easy, fast and individualized 

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control systems without requiring much 

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the Modular Central Unit (MCU) that 

synchronizes the power devices – e.g. 

Modular Power Switch (MPS), Modular 

Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) 

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48 


functions through an integrated signal 

output. The MPM system is an ideal solution 

for off-grid power scenarios requiring 

high flexibility and reliability. Convenient 

remote monitoring by modem and 

the Phocos MODCOM software enable 

comfortable and fast configuration, control 

and surveillance even from the most 

remote location. The intelligent energy 

management concept allows individualized 

hybrid operation of all three power 

generators. 

Any system errors can be analyzed and 

fixed quickly. Periodical remote monitoring 

helps avoid potential system failure 

and saves logistic cost by minimizing the 

need of having to travel to the location. 

Cost effectiveness and system efficiency 

can be further enhanced by using MPP 

trackers like the Phocos MPPT 100/30. 

The MPP trackers, which are slightly 

higher in price than conventional charge 

controllers, enable yield increases of up 

to 30 percent, depending on conditions 

like solar radiation, ambient temperature 

and battery charge status. Installation 

of a MPP tracker allows using cheaper, 

more conveniently available high voltage 

solar modules designed for on-grid applications. 

The MPP tracker converts the 

higher voltage of these modules into battery 

voltage, thus significantly reducing 

the complete system costs. 

Some industrial applications – like fire, 

flood or tsunami warning systems, traffic 

control units, oil pipeline servicing and 

monitoring equipment – do not require 

much energy, often only between 0.1 and 

50 watt hours a day, but definitely do re- 

Bolivian women with the Pico lamp made by Phocos. 

quire a reliable power supply. If they are 

unavailable due to a power outage, the 

safety of people and the systems they service 

may be at danger. This is the main 

reason why many operators are looking 

for complete power solutions that offer 

them reliability. 

Street and roadway lighting 

As lighting systems are subject to extreme 

weather conditions (moisture, rain, high 

temperature variations, dust, salt, corrosion, 

etc.), they have to be engineered to 

be weather proof and reliable in all scenarios. 

How this can be achieved shall be 

demonstrated in an off-grid street light 

application at a motorway in China. 

The application uses 160 watt solar 

modules in combination with the fully 

encapsulated CIS charge controllers by 

This off-grid street light application on Jimo Heshan Road, Qingdao, uses Phocos’ fully encapsulated CIS charge controllers. 

Phocos. CIS charge controllers were specifically 

developed for harsh weather and 

environment scenarios. They feature adjustable 

timer and dimmer functions, 

thus giving the operator of solar powered 

street lights the flexibility to define when 

the streets are to be fully lighted, when 

lighting is to be dimmed and when it can 

be switched off. 

Renowned system integrators and 

wholesalers successfully build and distribute 

complete off-grid streetlight solutions. 

Leisure applications 

Light, communication and cooling is required 

in leisure applications like motor 

homes, sailboats, vacation homes, hunting 

cabins and mountain lodges. Usually 

these applications use batteries for stor- 


ing electrical energy. Often solar panels 

are the only choice for recharging in remote 

areas. 

These applications typically consume 

ten to 300 watt hours daily if running 

in standalone solar operation and up to 

several kilowatt hours in combined grid/ 

solar operation. Users in this category expect 

professional complete solutions, customer 

service, and good aesthetics. The 

systems have to be able to store maintenance 

free in times when they are not 

needed and they have to last a long time. 

Users also want systems which can be installed 

quickly and easily. 

Many applications combine solar module 

and battery, diesel generator, fuel cells 

or power grid, some even use more than 

one power source in so-called hybrid solutions. 

For all these scenarios intelligent 

power management, again, is an important 

feature in enabling more power autonomy 

and reliability. 

System integrators and wholesalers 

provide custom-designed, application 

oriented power solutions that match individual 

requirements by combining the 

right solar module with the right type of 

battery and an intelligent charge man- 

agement system. Mobile homes have sufficient 

roof space for easy installation of 

a solar module. In sailboats, meanwhile, 

where there is less space but more wind, 

hybrid combinations of solar modules 

and wind generators are used. Innovative 

charge controller features like smart 

timing, remote monitoring, data logging 

will support them in their task. Intelligent 

charge controllers like the Phocos 

CXN including related accessories make 

off-grid operation of electrical devices 

even more convenient. On the display 

the user can check panel and load current 

and battery voltage, or retrieve data 

of the past seven days from the integrated 

data logger. The system can also be remote 

controlled by the CXCOM software. 

This enables reading and collecting data 

at a location far away from the operating 

site, as well as remote reconfiguration 

and monitoring. 

With intelligent power management 

and customized solutions, system integrators 

and wholesalers will have major 

opportunities for fast growth and business 

success. u 

Ulrike Schramm, Susanne Kircher, 

Anton Zimmermann, Matthias Schneider 

PhOcOS AG 


Phocos AG, headquartered in Ulm, Germany, is 

one of the leading manufacturers of solar charge 

controllers and components for solar off-grid systems. 

Products developed and manufactured by 

Phocos enable the use of renewable energy sources 

in efficient, environmentally-friendly ways. 

Phocos offers a successful range of intelligent 

charge control solutions, selling over 250,000 per 

year worldwide. Phocos devices are designed 

to meet the demanding requirements in a wide 

range of off-grid power scenarios. Phocos charge 

controllers come with a broad selection of features, 

for example weatherproofing against humidity 

and temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius, 

remote monitoring and controlling options, data 

logging, intelligent timer functions, and advanced 

battery protection features. For off-grid use, 

Phocos also offers a range of intelligent energysaving 

DC appliances, like lamps or cooling or 

refrigerating devices. 

Phocos has sales offices in Eastern Europe, the 

United States, South America, Africa, and Asia and 

the company operates an international network. 

Phocos partners with international producers 

of solar modules and system integrators. Eighty 

percent of the company’s turnover is generated 

outside of Europe. 

www.phocos.com 

Advertisement

50 

Markets & Trends | Module Price Index 

Spot market for PV panels 

Crystalline modules 

from Germany 


from Europe 


from Japan 


from China 

Weekly price 

Price trend 

Euro/Wp Jun. 09 

3,30 

3,20 

3,10 

3,00 

2,90 

2,80 

2,70 

2,60 

2,50 

2,40 

2,30 

2,20 

2,10 

2,00 

1,90 

1,80 

Jul. 09 Aug. 09 Sep. 09 Oct. 09 Nov. 09 Dec. 09 Jan. 10 Feb. 10 Mar. 10 Apr. 10 May 10 June 10 July 10 Aug. 10 Sep. 10 Oct. 10 


3,30 

3,20 

3,10 

3,00 

2,90 

2,80 

2,70 

2,60 

2,50 

2,40 

2,30 

2,20 

2,10 

2,00 

1,90 

1,80 



3,30 

3,20 

3,10 

3,00 

2,90 

2,80 

2,70 

2,60 

2,50 

2,40 

2,30 

2,20 

2,10 

2,00 

1,90 

1,80 



3,10 

3,00 

2,90 

2,80 

2,70 

2,60 

2,50 

2,40 

2,30 

2,20 

2,10 

2,00 

1,90 

1,80 

1,70 

1,60 

1,50 

1,40 


For information on the data collected visit www.pvXchange.com 


Silicon prices 

rising 

Module prices: At the moment module prices are stable 

on the spot market. However, suppliers of wafers and 

polycrystalline silicon have announced price increases. 

While the German demand for solar modules was modest in 

September, demand for quotas in the megawatt range grew in 

Italy and Eastern Europe. But spot market prices remained constant 

in September, apart from small price increases for Japanese 

modules. In Japan, the strength of the Yen as well as the 

steady growth of the domestic PV market since the third quarter 

of 2009 have lead module manufacturers to purchase solar 

cells from, in particular, China and Taiwan. 

Wafer and polycrystalline silicon suppliers announced new 

price hikes in September. Higher demand on the spot market 

has already lead to the price of silicon lying above 60 U.S. 

dollars per kilogram at the beginning of October. In the third 

quarter it was only 55 dollars. Wafer producers have announced 

a price increase from 3.80 to 4 U.S. dollars. Due to larger demand 

for wafers the room for price reductions is extremely 

tight this year. Up to the end of the year the sector expects a 

total cell capacity of 33 gigawatts, of which more than 80 percent 

will come from crystalline technologies. In spite of all this, 

prices for turn-key PV installations have dropped by an average 

of 13 percent within the last twelve months, according to the 

German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar). The next significant 

price drop is expected at the end of the first quarter of 

2011. Despite further growth in the thin film sector, crystalline 

technologies will continue to dominate the market in years to 

come. The thin film share will account for about 15 percent. 

In comparison to modules the price of inverters, in particular 

up to 20 kilowatts, plummets weekly. The market is experiencing 

an unprecedented surplus of inverters. Large devices 

though, which are popular in the Czech Republic and especially 

in Italy, are difficult to find and therefore expensive. 

Overall the latest market development predictions are more 

optimistic than ever. An increase of between 20 and 40 percent 

is expected for the coming year. u 

Price index 

Gema Garay, Senior Consultant at pvXchange GmbH 

The price index is compiled with the kind assistance of pvXchange 

GmbH. The data presented here were determined from 

several thousand offers on the online trading platform of the 

same name. The company also offers consultancy services relating 

to the photovoltaics market and a comprehensive product 

database. Its main focus is on personal support activities for 

clients all over the world. Specialist firms may do business on the 

international trading platform free of charge. 

www.pvXchange.com 


Advertisement 

TRUST in Solar 

Insurances For 

The PV Industry 

TRUST 

Versicherungsmakler AG 

Contact Information: 

Christian Leers, director sales & marketing 

Email: trustinsolar@trust-ag.com 

Phone:+49 (0)30 832 110 600 

www.trust-in-solar.com

Markets & Trends | Stock Price Index 

Macro themes are key 

Ardour Solar Index: The positive fanfare from the SPI conference is winding down in 

view of ongoing concerns about Chinese policy. 

Dropping by minus three, the Ardour 

Solar Index was down slightly in October 

after a strong performance in September 

leading into the Solar Power International 

(SPI) conference in Los Angeles, 

CA. The index peaked on October 14, 

as positive fanfare from the SPI conference 

was winding down. However, it gave 

up all of its gains as investors took profits 

on some macro concerns, such as the 

ongoing Chinese-American trade dispute, 

currency fluctuations and an interest 

rate increase from the China central 

bank. Company specific concerns also 

weighed on the index as investors were 

not impressed with the results for the 

third quarter of 2010 from bellwethers 

First Solar and REC. 

On the European landscape, the top 

three index constituents outperformed 

their peers as solar investors shifted attention 

to the region’s heavyweights. Renewable 

Energy Corp. was up two percent 

during the period. REC traded up 

on healthy industry trends through the 

first half of October, but gave up much 

of the gain leading into and after reporting 

third quarter of 2010 results. Conservative 

guidance, lower silane production 

and pricing comments contributed to a 

sell-off in the stock. Solarworld and SMA 

posted a 13-percent and five-percent gain, 

respectively, following strong demand 

after underperforming September. 

U.S. traded constituents had mixed results. 

Top weighted MEMC Electronic 

Materials posted a seven-percent gain in 

September on strong demand and firm 

semi wafer pricing. In contrast, First Solar 

dropped seven percent, despite beating estimates 

for the third quarter of 2010 and 

increasing 2010 guidance. Investors took 

profits on ASP concerns, uptick in manufacturing 

costs and a strong stock price 

performance since mid August. Trina 

Solar was down 11 percent after four outperformances 

in the previous four months 

as investors sold on Chinese macro concerns 

mentioned above. u Adam Krop, 

Adour Capital Investments, LLC 

Ardour Solar Energy Index, six months 

2,200 $ 

2,100 $ 

2,000 $ 

1,900 $ 

1,800 $ 

1,700 $ 

1,600 $ 

1,500 $ 

1,400 $ 

1,200 $ 

1,100 $ 

1,000 $ 

May June July August September 

10. 29. 2010 

1,791.61 $ 

October 

Firm Country 

Currency 

Weight* 

Change 

MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. 

USA 

USD 

10.42 % 

7,6 % 

First Solar, Inc. 

USA 

USD 

10.33 % 

– 6,6 % 

Trina Solar Co., Ltd. 

China 

USD 

9.50 % 

– 11,3 % 

Renewable Energy Corp. AS 

Norway 

NOK 

7.64 % 

2,3 % 

JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. 

China 

USD 

4.52 % 

– 10,7 % 

Gintech Energy Corp. 

Taiwan 

TWD 

4.48 % 

0,5 % 

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. 

China 

USD 

4.43 % 

– 11,9 % 

Solarworld AG 

Germany 

EUR 

4.40 % 

13,0 % 

SMA Solar Technology AG 

Germany 

EUR 

4.31 % 

5,2 % 

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., Ltd. 

China 

USD 

4.30 % 

– 15,8 % 

Neo Solar Power Corp. 

Taiwan 

TWD 

3.52 % 

5,4 % 

SunPower Corp. 

US 

USD 

3.38 % 

– 5,6 % 

Renesola, Ltd. 

China 

USD 

2.99 % 

– 4,2 % 

GT Solar International, Inc. 

USA 

USD 

2.63 % 

– 1,7 % 

LDK Solar Co., Ltd. 

China 

USD 

2.32 % 

10,6 % 

Q-Cells SE 

Germany 

EUR 

2.29 % 

– 24,1 % 

Centrotherm Photovoltaics AG 

Germany 

EUR 

2.00 % 

– 3,7 % 

Roth & Rau AG 

Germany 

EUR 

1.99 % 

– 4,2 % 

Solartech Energy Corp. 

Taiwan 

TWD 

1.98 % 

– 1,2 % 

Canadian Solar Inc. 

Canada 

USD 

1.91 % 

– 14,3 % 

Danen Technology Corp. 

Taiwan 

TWD 

1.68 % 

– 10,7 % 

Green Energy Technology Inc., Ltd. 

Taiwan 

TWD 

1.67 % 

– 10,6 % 

Solar Millennium AG 

Germany 

EUR 

1.63 % 

4,7 % 

Phoenix Solar AG 

Germany 

EUR 

1.43 % 

6,9 % 

Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. 

USA 

USD 

1.08 % 

– 10,0 % 

JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. 

China 

USD 

0.86 % 

– 4,6 % 

Conergy AG 

Germany 

EUR 

0.77 % 

– 10,2 % 

Solarfun Power Holdings Co, Ltd. 

China 

USD 

0.65 % 

– 22,4 % 

China Sunergy Co., Ltd. 

China 

USD 

0.46 % 

0,0 % 

Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente 

Spain 

EUR 

0.43 % 

0,3 % 

The Ardour Solar Energy Index SM (SOLRX) is designed to serve as a fair, impartial and transparent measure of the performance 

of the solar photovoltaic industry. The SOLRX comprises 30 global pure-play stocks from the solar sector. Each company in the 

index has a market capitalization exceeding 100 million U. S. dollars and generates over 66 percent of its revenues from 

solar activities. 

*As of 9/20/10 quarterly rebalancing 


Graphics: Solarpraxis AG/Harald Schütt

www.luvata.com 

There has never been a greater need for solar energy 

There has never been a greater range of possibilities 

Luvata is continuing to grow its Sunwire capacity and its range 

of solutions for solar thermal and photovoltaic energy – from the 

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FOR ROOFS | FOR FACADES | FOR SOLUTIONS

54 


More dealers and installers are demanding Chinese modules. Shown are Suntech modules awaiting shipment. 

Time to fix contracts 

for next year 

Lead times: The time between ordering and the delivery of solar modules, inverters, 

mounting systems, and cabling is further decreasing. 

Lead times continue to decrease for all 

categories while inverter lead times declined 

the most. EU inverters are 5.75 

weeks, down from 11.14 weeks in September, 

a 48 percent decrease. U.S. inverters 

are 7.57 weeks, down from 10.6 weeks in 

September, a 29 percent decrease. Although 

these levels are still relatively 

high, lead times are fast approaching to 

the normal levels, which RA estimates 

will occur in November or December. 

Inverter inventory is building in Germany, 

but these can be allocated to Italian 

customers as well. In contrast to this 

and previous years, manufacturers are 

now looking to fix contracts for 2011. 

Some customers are resisting, trying to 

keep volumes as flexible as possible. Survey 

participants expect that inverter supplier 

prices will decline by three percent 

in Q1 2011 and one percent Q2 2011, while 

they still expect an increase by one percent 

this quarter. Survey participants 

report that the Chinese Tier-1 modules 

are still hard to procure. Chinese Tier-1 

modules have the highest lead time after 

U.S.-based crystalline modules, which 

have shown the highest lead times in the 

past. Historically, Chinese Tier-1 used to 

Lead times in October 2010 

EU inverters 

U.S. inverters 

EU crystalline brand name 

Chinese tier 1 modules 

Japanese crystalline 

Cadmium telluride (Cd-Te) 

U.S. based crystalline 

Mounting systems 

Cabling 

Source: Renewable Analytics October 

2010 EU PV Dealer & Installer Survey 

Weeks 

2.09 

1.88 

2 

3.29 

4.54 

4 

5.75 

6.09 

6.00 

6 

7.57 

7.43 

have the lowest lead times. More dealers 

and installers are demanding Chinese 

modules, and they want more to become 

available. However, our survey shows 

that Chinese Tier-1 market penetration 

has held at 50 to 55 percent of the market 

share since April. u Vahdet Avci, 

8 

Research Associate at Renewable Analytics 

10 

12 

14 

16 

18 


Photo: Suntech Power Holdings Co. 

Graphic: Solarpraxis AG/Harald Schütt

Sunny prospects for your profit. 

gehrtec product innovations. 

Based on our 16-year experience in the photovoltaic market and 

realization of many solar power plants, the technicians from 

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www.gehrlicher.com 

Gehrlicher Solar AG . Max-Planck-Str. 3 . D-85609 Dornach/Munich . Phone +49 89 420792–134 . info@gehrlicher.com

56 


The convention and trade show, Solar Power International, positions itself as the world’s third largest industry 

event, behind Intersolar Europe in Munich and PVSNEC in Shanghai. 

Cautious optimism 

Solar Power International: The development of photovoltaics in the USA is still 

being drip-fed by politics – a fact that became very obvious at this year’s Solar Power 

International in Los Angeles. 

Those that had scheduled their meetings 

too closely together often ended up being 

late to the Los Angeles Convention Center, 

as the walk alone from the West Hall 

to the South Hall in this large exhibition 

and convention building was considerable. 

More than 1,100 exhibitors, approximately 

20 percent more than last year, 

presented themselves at the Solar Power 

International (SPI), which was held from 

October 12 to 14. This convention and 

trade show, which is organized by the 

U.S.-American Solar Electric Power Association 

(SEPA) and the Solar Energy 

Industries Association (SEIA), positions 

itself as the world’s third largest industry 

event behind the Intersolar Europe in 

Munich and the PVSNEC in Shanghai. 

This year, the focus once again was on the 

downstream area. Mainly project developers 

and systems integrators, mounting 

rack and accessories manufacturers, inverter 

and module manufacturers were 

represented. The number of visitors, how- 

ever, was not as spectacular as the record 

number of exhibitors. This year, the SPI 

drew approximately 27,000 visitors to Los 

Angeles, just about the same number of 

attendees at Anaheim last year. Especially 

in the Kentia Hall on the first floor, 

there were relatively few visitors at many 

exhibitors’ booths, with more staff manning 

the booths than visitors to them. 

This situation reflects the U.S. solar 

market. Lilian Geurtjens from Scheuten 

Solar put her finger on the issue. “Com- 


Photos: Solarpraxis AG/Hans-Christoph Neidlein

ARRA And Buy AmeRIcAn PRovISIon 

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the ARRA, namely the American Recovery 

and Reinvestment Act, as a direct response to the economic crisis. It has three immediate 

goals: to create new jobs and save existing ones, to spur economic activity and invest in 

long-term growth and to foster unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency 

in government spending. It also includes the Buy American Provision to allocate funding 

only to products using American materials and undergoing manufacture in the USA. 

The ARRA also supports the advancement of solar technologies. It includes 16.8 billion 

dollars for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy’s (EERE) programs and initiatives. Of this amount, 117.6 million dollars are 

allocated for specific activities within the Solar Energy Technologies Program (Solar 

Program). The Solar Program provides opportunities for both financial and technical 

assistance. Funding is being given to DOE national laboratories and other projects. 

Amongst these are the Solar Market Transformation Project, aimed at ramping up solar 

production in Solar America Cities. 

Subsequent to this, photovoltaics has been granted partial exception to the ARRA’s Buy 

American Provision. The ARRA insists that products given assistance be produced in the 

USA. However, in a memorandum of decision signed on August 6, 2010, Cathy Soi, Assistant 

Secretary of Energy for EERE, granted “inapplicability” to PV manufacturing from 

the Buy American Provision. EERE and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory had 

done extensive research into the nature of the domestic solar manufacturing industry to 

determine the best way to apply the Buy American requirements for solar PV projects. As 

the memo has it, an inclusive approach has been chosen that allows a solar installation 

to comply if either the cells or the modules are manufactured in the United States. This is 

the “Solar Public Interest Waiver” and is valid until February 6, 2011. 

In short, modules are allowed to be of heterogeneous origin. Zoi issues a waver for 

the following items from the Buy American provisions; 1) Domestically manufactured 

modules containing foreign manufactured cells, 2) Foreign manufactured modules, when 

comprised of 100 percent domestically manufactured cells, and 3) Any ancillary items and 

equipment installation involving a U.S. manufactured PV module, or a module manufactured 

abroad but comprised exclusively of domestically manufactured cells. Zoi states 

that “The Buy American provisions contain no requirement with regard to the origin of 

components or subcomponents in manufactured goods used in a project, as long as the 

manufacturing occurs in the United States.” 

However, determining where final “manufacturing” occurs in the context of the complex 

solar production chain is complicated. Zoi goes on that “under a plain reading of the Recovery 

Act Buy American provisions, only the modules would need to be manufactured 

in the United States, but the source of the components parts – including high-value cells 

– would not be relevant to complying with the Buy American requirements.” u 

Petra Franke, James Harris 

pared to what is happening on the U.S. 

market, the trade show is too big,” she 

said. In spite of dozens of announced new 

mega- and gigawatt projects, the actual 

PV growth in the economically strongest 

country of the world remains relatively 

limited; especially with regard to production. 

The real hot spot is in Asia. 

Experts such as SEPA President Julia 

Hamm, for example, expect the performance 

of new U.S. installations to increase 

in 2010 from 800 to 900 megawatts. 

This is indeed twice as high as last 

year, but compared with the expected 

eight gigawatt increase in the comparatively 

small Germany, its still peanuts. 

“Our projections for 2011 have not been 

confirmed yet, but we are expecting an 

increase in the USA of at least one gigawatt,” 

Hamm emphasized during her talk 

with pv magazine. 


Hamm believes that the main reason 

the U.S. solar market is growing this 

slowly lies in the pending political decisions 

regarding the extension of the Renewal 

Energy Loan Guarantee Program 

by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 

and the vote on the continuation of climate 

protection programs in California. 

About 1.5 billion dollars were pulled in 

August from the loan guarantee program 

and used for other government initiatives. 

Last year, two billion dollars were “borrowed” 

to pay for the Cash for Clunkers 

program. “This money has not yet been 

repaid, and there is little reason to believe 

the recently diverted funds will return 

to the DOE’s program,” said Jack Jacobs 

from Cleantech Law Partners. SEIA 

President Rhone Resch urged the industry 

to remain vigilant during his keynote 

speech at the SPI: “Big oil companies and 

Advertisement

58 


The main focus of this year’s Solar Power International was once again on the downstream sector. 

Module manufacturers such as China based Eging presented themselves. 

other special interests spent 500 million 

dollars in lobbying and campaign contributions 

to defeat the clean energy and climate 

legislation in Congress.” 

The big oil companies had spent millions 

of dollars during the past weeks and 

months to support Proposition 23, a proposal 

that would kill AB 32, the most progressive 

clean economy legislation in the 

country. Resch was enraged that the toxic 

fossil industries had received 550 billion 

dollars in subsidies worldwide. From tax 

credits to price supports, to access to 

millions of acres of lands given away to 

drilling, the “fossil fuel industry is grotesquely 

over-subsidized at the expense of 

the renewable energy industries,” underlined 

the SEIA President. “After 150 year’s 

of subsidies it’s time to level the playing 

field – it’s time to cut their subsidies and 

shift support to solar and other renewable 

energy industries.” Resch showed 

her fighting spirit. Such a change in politics 

would be overdue in the USA. If this 

happened, photovoltaics could finally get 

a fresh start in the U.S. In Los Angeles, 

Resch named the figure of ten gigawatt 

of annual growth from 2015 onward as 

the target mark. 

How difficult the path is to reach that 

mark becomes very clear faced with the 

currently low cost-effectiveness of photovoltaics 

in residential areas in many 

U.S. states. Real estate broker Jay Johnson, 

who is active in the greater Minneapolis–St. 

Paul area, has been unable to 

convince a single homeowner this year 

to install PV modules on his roof, even 

though the solarization is better there 

than in many parts of Germany. The reason: 

In light of the subsidized low electricity 

prices, the return of investment for 

a four kilowatt photovoltaic installation 

is currently more than 30 year’s, Johnson 

explains. The figures do not look much 

better in the sun-drenched Arizona. In 

the blazing heat of the desert around 

Phoenix, Atlas Material Testing Technology 

is operating one of the world’s largest 

open air test fields for modules. For regular 

folks, however, PV is still much too expensive, 

as Atlas employee Duncan Ma- 

civer told pv magazine. According to a 

computer calculation program, a normal 

house installation in and around Phoenix 

does not become economical until after 

21 year’s, if all costs are taken into consideration. 

“It is currently still not clear at all, how 

the U.S. market will develop and how 

good the sales opportunities for premium 

price products really are,” Nicholas Morris 

from the Associates Business Development 

department of Yingli Green Energy 

Americas added. This is why the plans 

for the construction of a module plant 

in Texas have been put on hold for now. 

Until recently, the Chinese company had 

planned to be able to be the first to offer 

solar modules “made in USA” to comply 

with the requirements of the Buy American 

Provision of the American Recovery 

and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for respectively 

subsidized federal projects. 

In the city of Goodyear, Arizona, competitor 

Suntech opened the first 30 megawatt 

stage of its U.S. module plant in October. 

“The production costs per watt 

are higher here than in China, but we 

are banking on the higher prices we can 

achieve for federally financed projects 

and we believe in the future of the U.S. 

market,” emphasized Wei-Tai Twok, Vice 

President of Marketing for North America 

at Suntech. The company would also 

consider a more automated production as 

is being used in the plant in Goodyear 

as a “future model for the production in 

China.” Kwok emphasized that particularly 

the areas of tabbing, stringing, and 

module layup were more automated. 

Companies such as the German inverter 

manufacturer Delta Energy Systems 

announced in Los Angeles that they 

were going to build a U.S. plant for its new 

inverters in order to be able to comply 

with the Buy American Provision and to 

get a foothold in the market early. “Regardless 

of short-term political decisions, 

we are convinced that the U.S. market is 

growing substantially,” said Vice President 

Andreas Hoischen to pv magazine. 

It will be interesting to gauge the 

mood at the Solar Power International 

2011, which is held for the first time in 

Dallas, Texas, the stronghold of “Big 

Oil.” At least, the Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission (FERC) has paved 

the way for multi-tiered feed-in tariffs in 

the United States (see www.pv-magazine. 

com/opinion). u 

Hans-Christoph Neidlein 


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THE POWER TO BE INDEPENDENT

60 


Featured at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver, this 2,200-square-foot home sports a 

six-kilowatt system of monocrystalline silicon Just Roof modules from Suntech Power. 

A marriage 

of beauty and function 

BIPV: A growing number of PV manufacturers are offering modules designed to blend 

into roofs and building facades in North America. Competition will be particularly fierce 

for the precious real estate on the residential rooftops. 

The idea of solar modules that can blend 

into buildings like chameleons promises 

to unlock new installation spaces, inspire 

eco-friendly architectural designs and create 

a new market for solar electric equipment 

manufacturers. The idea has been 

around for decades, but the building-integrated 

PV (BIPV) market remains tiny 

even today primarily because of technology, 

pricing and public policy. The BIPV 

market emerging in the United States 

will contain different dynamics than in 

Europe because the U.S. lacks a national 

feed-in tariff or other incentives designed 

to encourage these installations. 

In North America, there are some 

fancy building-integrated PV projects 

on high-rise commercial and residential 

structures that illustrate novel uses of 

solar cells in building facades and walkways. 

While these projects are attentiongrabbing, 

they don’t make up the volumes 

needed to cultivate a booming market for 

BIPV products. 

New single or multi-family housing development 

projects, particularly those in 

states with strong solar incentives, are the 

new frontier for BIPV manufacturers and 

their customers. California and Arizona, 

for example, are emerging as potentially 

big BIPV markets because of their historically 

strong home sales and generous 

rebate programs. Industry analysts are 

also counting on the Canadian province 

of Ontario as a potential stronghold for 

BIPV deployment, even though the Ontario 

program doesn’t have BIPV carved 

out. “BIPV provides the aesthetics. Builders 

are more concerned about the aesthet- 


Photo: RDC Fine Homes

ics – price isn’t as important when ensuring that their homes 

look a certain way and makes a good first impression to home 

buyers,” says Tom Harvey, Director of Sales and Marketing at 

SunRun, a solar energy service company in San Francisco. 

The growth will depend largely on a close collaboration between 

the PV and building industries. Builders and roofers, of 

course, will want data showing that BIPV systems will perform 

well and last for decades. But what they also need assurance 

that any integration of BIPV equipment into building facades 

or materials won’t compromise the integrity of the buildings 

and lead to expensive warranties and lawsuits. Architects have 

expressed a strong interest in using solar modules, but they 

also have a host of other technology options to choose from to 

design buildings with lower carbon footprints. Although the 

American Institute of Architects doesn’t endorse technologies, 

it is promoting the use of software and other tools to streamline 

the process of selecting and designing emerging eco-friendly 

features into projects. One such approach is the use of Green 

BIM (building information modeling), a simulation software 

that can be used not just for designing buildings but also for 

determining how well new technologies will perform once they 

are up and running. “Architects like the flexibility, aesthetics 

and the lack of wind-load of BIPV. They like the integration 

concept,” says Jean-Noël Poirier, Vice President of Marketing 

and Business Development at Global Solar Energy. “We need 

to educate the market, and it takes time.” 

There isn’t one definition of BIPV. Generally, BIPV systems 

are considered equipment that is integrated into building materials 

and may offer functions other than electricity generation, 

such as insulation from weather elements. Modules that lie flat 

on flat roofs and require no racks, on the other hand, don’t meet 

the definition, though that hasn’t stopped manufacturers from 

using the term BIPV in marketing materials. Although crystalline 

silicon solar modules are dominating the market, BIPV 

technology options have expanded significantly in 2010 when 

several American makers of copper-indium-gallium-selenide 

thin films unveiled flexible modules that use plastic instead of 

glass to protect the solar cells. Not coincidentally, polymer film 

maker 3M also recently launched a new plastic film that offers 

strong protection against moisture, a huge threat to the performance 

and durability of CIGS cells. 

BIPV technology menu 

Up until now, BIPV systems have largely been fabricated using 

rigid, glass-covered crystalline silicon modules. Some of the 

showcase projects, such as the high-rise residential projects in 

New York City developed by altPower, required customized 

modules with cells from manufacturers such as SunPower 

and General Electric. The growth of the rooftop residential 

and commercial markets in certain regions of the country has 

prompted some module makers to design standardized products 

that can fit snugly into space reserved for shingles and tiles. 

Suntech Power, for one, is producing multicrystalline silicon 

tiles branded SolarBlend, which is sold through Eagle Roofing 

Products based in California. SunPower also offers a competing 

product called the SunTile, which makes use of monocrystalline 

silicon cells. 

Both Suntech and SunPower still use glass to package their 

cells, and the tiles are meant to sink into the roof to take place of 

the normal concrete tiles, even though their dark blue or black 


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colors don’t match many of the common 

tile colors. SolarBlend comes with 

frames that run one of the three colors 

that are most commonly found on tiles 

(grey, terracotta and brown). The colored 

frames help to camouflage the dark blue 

solar cells somewhat, especially for homeowners 

looking up from their yard, 

says Jay Banister, National Solar and 

Marketing Manager for Eagle Roofing 

and Eagle Solar. A polycarbonate frame 

that requires no grounding, which simplifies 

the installation process, Banister 

says. To install SolarBlend, roofers lay 

down thin wooden strips whose depth 

provides room for running wires underneath 

the solar modules. The modules are 

then screwed onto the wooden strips. 

On the thin film front, United Solar 

Ovonic is viewed as a veteran in BIPV business. 

The Michigan company launched 

solar shingles back in the 1990s, but discontinued 

after losing the UL listing as 

the shingles no longer met the national 

electric code. The shingles required drilling 

many holes on the roof for the wires, 

making them cumbersome to install. 

Uni-Solar recently launched a new generation 

of shingles and showed them off 

at Solar Power International in Los Angeles 

in October, though company representatives 

weren’t willing to reveal how 

the wiring would work. The shingles use 

the same triple-junction amorphous-silicon 

cells found in Uni-Solar’s core product 

– laminates that can lay flat on the 

roof without racks. This time around, 

the shingles are supposed to be outfitted 

with thinner wires and connectors. 

The design should also only require roof 

penetration in one spot, where the wiring 

will run through to be connected to the 

meter, says Stan Kosierowski, vice president 

of NJR Clean Energy Ventures, 

which is launching a pilot program to install 

two Uni-Solar products, including 

the shingles, on 30 homes in New Jersey. 

The shingles won’t be available until next 

year. The shingles would be nailed to the 

roof deck in the same way that shingles 

are installed, says Wendy Ventura, a Uni- 

Solar spokesperson. 

The low efficiency of Uni-Solar’s modules, 

around seven percent, has always 

been a trade-off for buyers who value its 

light-weight, flexible designs. It’s facing a 

growing number of competitors offering 

glass-less modules with higher efficiencies. 

Several U.S. makers of copper-indium-gallium-selenide 

modules, such as 

3M recently launched its Ultra Barrier Solar Film, 

which is able to replace glass as the protective cover. 

Global Solar Energy, SoloPower and Ascent 

Solar Technologies – unveiled their 

flexible products this year that can achieve 

more than ten percent efficiency. 

The CIGS module makers have either 

obtained certifications or are in the process 

of doing so. These companies envision 

seeing their laminates applied onto 

the roofs, particularly on commercial 

buildings, but whether the modules will 

be used as true BIPV products remains to 

be seen. Global Solar’s cells will go into 

Dow Solar’s shingles for residential construction, 

and Dow plans to start shipping 

next year. 

Perhaps not uncoincidentally, Minnesota-based 

3M also recently unveiled 

a fluoropolymer film designed to replace 

glass as the front cover for CIGS, 

cadmium-telluride and organic thin 

films. Until now, CIGS module makers 

have largely relied on glass as the protective 

layer because it is cheap, durable 

and waterproof. Plastic covering is 

used for more novelty products such as 

solar chargers that aren’t going to be exposed 

to the weather elements continuously 

for decades. 3M has figured out a 

way to achieve a water vapor transmission 

rate of 5x10 -4 grams per square-meter 

per day. That means only 0.0005 grams 

of water can move through the plastic 

film. The rate is hundreds of times better 

than competing Teflon films from Du- 

Pont, which is working on a film that it 

hopes will get to the level of 10 -5 grams 

per square-meter per day. “Having a good 

moisture barrier is a key challenge. With 

amorphous-silicon you can get away with 

lower moisture permeation rate because 


Photo: 3M

amorphous-silicon isn’t as moisture sensitive. 

CIGS is the hardest one to protect”, 

says Dan Doble, Group Leader of 

the Fraunhofer Center of Sustainable Energy 

Systems. 

Module makers could use lamination 

machines already available on the market 

for applying the 3M film. Or they could 

invest in equipment that could do roll-toroll 

lamination. 3M is in the pilot production 

of the film and expects to enter mass 

production by the end of 2011, says Derek 

DeScioli, Business Development Manager 

for 3M’s renewable energy division. 

Some conventional module makers also 

envision seeing selling their equipment 

into the BIPV market. Sulfurcell of Germany, 

for example, hopes to see the use 

of its CIS or CIGS modules, sandwiched 

in glass, built into a building facade or 

cover the roof of a home. The company 

has done projects in Germany and France 

to show how its modules can fit the overall 

design of a structure. 

“Hotels could be a big market. They are 

rebuilt every five to ten years because of 

re-branding or they are being bought by 

another chain,” says Boris von Bormann, 

Sulfurcell’s Director of Sales for North 

America. He adds, “BIPV also is ideal for 

pre-fab houses.” Pre-fabricated homes – 

which are built in factories and assembled 

onsite – can also make an attractive 

market, von Bormann says. The move towards 

designing more sustainable homes 

has sparked an interest in marrying the 

efficiency of prefabricated homes in factories 

with designs that make the homes 

more energy efficient. This is one way to 

reduce the carbon footprint of homes 

during and after their construction. 

Given that the BIPV market is small 

and even smaller in North America 

compared to Europe, the solar industry 

needs to educate architects, builders 

and other potential customers the benefits 

of integrating solar into buildings, 

as von Bormann says. Sulfurcell is looking 

for partners to create a design guide 

that can explain the different BIPV technology 

choices, energy savings and costs, 

and other common issues asked by those 

interested in BIPV. 

Initial BIPV market 

As emerging products, BIPV systems and 

the cost of installing them won’t be cheap. 

The installations have to fit snugly into 


the space previously occupied by shingles 

or tiles, for example, and that requires 

not just an efficient use of space but also 

special training for roofers. The equipment 

and installation costs can run 0.40 

to 0.90 U.S. dollars per watt (DC) higher 

than conventional PV systems, as Banister 

says. Government incentives will play 

a big role for BIPV adoption, of course. 

Regions with strong rebates programs 

and feed-in tariffs already in place, such 

as California, New Jersey and Ontario in 

Canada, are markets most likely to see 

more BIPV installations. The city of Los 

Angeles, which has its own utility, offers 

an extra 0.02 U.S. dollars per kilowatthour 

for BIPV systems. 

A big selling point of BIPV system is its 

ability to blend in with the roof. Some homeowners 

and community associations 

– which can pass rules dictating the use 

of building materials – have objected to 

conventional PV systems because they 

stand out. BIPV manufactures and installers 

expect to see a quicker adoption 

in new home constructions, where builders 

can offer solar as an option and design 

the homes to more easily accommodate 

modules and related equipment. Build- 

Advertisement

Photo: Eagle Solar and Century Roof and Solar 

64 


This house features the Eagle Solar Roof with SolarBlend, a system of polycrystalline silicon tiles from 

Suntech Power. 

ers are also more likely to offer BIPV in 

order to appeal to buyers who want a less 

obtrusive system. 

“We went with (Uni-Solar) to test the 

thin films and try to test how big the market 

is,” says Kosierowski. The NJR Cleantech 

Energy Ventures is starting a pilot 

program to install Uni-Solar’s shingles 

and laminates on 30 homes in New Jersey. 

The company will lease the installations, 

which will average three kilowatt 

in size, to homeowners for 26 dollars 

per month. California also has a regulation 

that will require home builders to 

offer solar as a standard option to buyers 

starting on January 1, 2011. This rule applies 

to single-family home projects with 

at least 50 homes each. Options are features 

and designs that buyers can choose 

to add, for additional costs, to the homes 

they want to buy. They typically make 

the selections before the homes are built. 

Up until now, many home builders preferred 

to offer options that might generate 

more profits for them, such as granite 

kitchen counters and hardwood floor. 

Builders of luxury homes might be more 

inclined to install PV systems at their 

own expenses or pass on the costs to buyers. 

Solar electric systems are expensive, 

so buyers of more modest homes might 

prefer to spend their extra money on bet- 

ter appliances or large kitchen cabinets. 

By making solar a standard option, however, 

it will at least remind home buyers 

that they have an opportunity to generate 

their own clean energy. 

A change in Californian regulation 

earlier this year also has prompted home 

builders to consider offering solar. In 

2007, the state launched the New Solar 

Homes Partnership (NSHP), which offers 

rebates to builders for new homes that can 

be more energy efficient than required by 

the state’s building standards. To get the 

rebates, builders have to show that each 

new home will use at least 15 percent less 

electricity, and they can qualify for more 

incentives if they can achieve greater efficiencies. 

To qualify, builders will have to 

pay for the PV systems and installations 

themselves or convince home buyers to 

pay for them up front. 

The change in the program allows 

leases and power-purchase agreements, 

which could make adding solar more attractive 

to home buyers. SunRun, a residential 

solar financing company, has 

teamed up with Toll Brothers to offer a 

service plan for buyers of a new, 90-home 

community in Southern California. San 

Francisco-based SunRun will own and 

maintain the PV systems, at around 2.5 

kilowatts in size, and charge homeowners 

a flat 42 dollars per month for 20 years. 

The PV systems offered include solar 

shingles by Suntech. 

“They don’t have to come up with 10 to 

15,000 dollars out of their own pockets 

to put solar on their homes. You will see 

a wider adoption,” says Bill Scott, senior 

vice president of solar solutions at PetersenDean 

Roofing and Solar Systems, 

a roof installation company that also designs 

and installs PV systems. Petersen- 

Dean is working with SunRun on the Toll 

Brothers project. 

How much demand will come from 

new-home market will also depend on 

how well the economy has recovered 

from the financial and housing market 

crash that led to high foreclosure rates. 

Single-family new home construction has 

increased slowly in 2010 compared with 

last year, the worst year since the Federal 

Government began collecting data 

in 1959. 

Beauty vs. power output 

BIPV systems generally offer aesthetic appeal 

at the expense of electricity production 

– the production could be five to 15 

percent less per year, says Scott. Without 

space to air, the performance of crystalline 

silicon modules can diminish, Harvey 

says. Thin film modules also have 

lower efficiencies than crystalline silicon 

modules. 

How much power a PV system can produce 

matters more when it’s owned by a 

service provider that owns the system 

and sells the electricity to homeowners. 

The building integrated designs, though 

a good selling point, may lose their competitive 

edge as new system designs give 

conventional PV systems lower profiles 

while they perch on the rooftop. “We are 

trying to find a happy middle ground 

where builders are happy with the aesthetics 

with a system that costs less to install 

and produce more power during the 

course of the year,” Scott says. 

As manufacturers improve their cell 

efficiencies and BIPV designs, they can 

carve out a significant market. The market 

is still in its infancy and offers much 

room for innovation. The winning combination 

will offer visually pleasing looks 

that also give a nice payback. As businesses 

and consumers become more educated 

about the benefit of solar energy, 

they also will be willing to consider options 

beyond traditional PV systems. u 

Ucilia Wang 


Jahre 

esverband Solarwirtschaft 

Renewables Insight – 

Energy Industry Guides 

Photovoltaics 

Solarenergie in Deutschland 

Solar Energy in Germany 

Solar Energy in Germany, 4 th Edition, November 2010 

Inverter and PV System Technology, New! April 2011 

PV Power Plants, 2 nd Edition, June 2011 

engineering the solar age, 5 th Edition, September 2011 

An industry guide from RENI is aimed at the decision makers 

of the pv manufacturing side. The publications also serve as a means 

of attracting investors and politicians. 

www.renewablesinsight.com 

Contact: Anastasia Segovia, 

Phone: +49(30)726296-446, 

Email: as@solarpraxis.de 

Falling technology prices and the rising 

costs of fossil fuels are making large solar 

parks increasingly attractive for investors. 

Plants of three-digit megawatt peak are 

in the planning stage and gigawatt peak 

plants are already being evaluated. 

Falling „PV Power technology Plants 2010“ prices is the and first the industry rising 

costs guide of to fossil focus fuels exclusively are making on utility-scale 

large solar 

parks solar power increasingly plants attractive and targets for to investors. system 

Plants integrators, of three-digit distributors, megawatt project developers, peak are 

in top the planners planning and stage investors. and gigawatt Besides peak cor- 

plants porate are portraits already it being includes evaluated. an overview of 

market conditions, developments in techno- 

„PV logy Power and depicts Plants 2010“ crucial is issues the first concerning industry 

guide planning to and focus financing. exclusively on utility-scale 

solar power plants and targets to system 

integrators, www.pv-power-plants.com 

distributors, project developers, 

top planners and investors. Besides corporate 

portraits it includes an overview of 

market conditions, developments in technology 

and depicts crucial issues concerning 

planning and financing. 

www.pv-power-plants.com 

PV Power Plants 2010 

The photovoltaics market continues to grow at a rapid pace. Der Photovoltaikmarkt wächst zügig weiter. Nach Angaben der 

According to the European Photovoltaic Industry Association European Photovoltaic Industry Association Industry (EPIA) ist Guide die instal- 

(EPIA), in 2008 the installed photovoltaic capacity worldwide lierte Leistung photovoltaischer Anlagen 2008 global von fast 16 

rose from almost 16 to approximateley 23 gigawatts. EPIA pre- auf ungefähr 23 Gigawatt gestiegen. Bis Ende 2010 prognostiziert 

dicts an increase of at least 10.1 gigawatts by the end of 2010. EPIA eine Steigerung um mindestens weitere 10,1 Gigawatt. 

That the photovoltaics PV industry POWER is Power now able to spread its Dass PLANTS Plants die Photovoltaik heute flügge ist, 2011 

hat 2010 

sie nicht nur den 

wings is not only thanks to the manufacturers of solar cells Herstellern von Solarzellen und -modulen zu verdanken. An der 

and modules. Plant and machinery manufacturers also have a beispiellosen Erfolgsgeschichte der Solartechnik Industry sind Guide 

vor allem 

share in solar technology’s unprecedented success story. auch die Maschinen- und Anlagenbauer beteiligt. 

“engineering the solar age” provides information about key „engineering the solar age“ stellt aktuelle Anwendungen, Techno- 

applications, technologies and, most importantly, the key logien und vor allem die wichtigsten Macher aus den Reihen der 

players in the fields of machine engineering, automation and Maschinenbauer, Automatisierer und Fabrikplaner vor. 

factory design. 

2010 2011 Suppliers for Photovoltaics | Maschinenbau und Ausrüster der Photovoltaikindustrie engineering the solar age 

2010 2011 

engineering the solar age 

Suppliers for Photovoltaics | Maschinenbau und Ausrüster der Photovoltaikindustrie

Photo: LG Electronics 

Solar Power International 2010 | Product News | Modules | Inverters 

Modules/Lumeta 

Rackless mounting 

Lumeta introduces its PowerPly module. 

The module utilizes monocrystalline 

cells to maximize energy output per 

roof area and a standard EVA based cell 

encapsulation process. The fiberglass reinforced 

plastic substrate in the Power- 

Ply design gives the rigidity necessary 

to the module. This replaces the Tedlar/ 

Polyester/Tedlar or TPT flexible substrate 

used in traditional modules. According 

to the company, this technology is enhanced 

by the Lumeta adhesive backing 

material that eliminates the need for rack 

mounting systems. This enables seamless 

integration onto the roof. The adherence 

properties of this adhesive material ex- 

Modules/LG Electronics 

The new monocrystalline 

Inverters/GE Energy 

Proven for solar and wind 

GE Energy introduced their one-megawatt 

solar inverter, Brilliance, at the SPI 

this year. This new inverter is the largest 

in GE Energy’s portfolio and is available 

in the 50 and 60 Hertz versions. Akin 

to the existing GE 700 kilowatt solar inverter, 

the new inverter is based on the 

proven power converter technology that 

GE uses for its global fleet of wind tur- 

ceed wind uplift requirements for roof 

mounted modules and its chemical composition 

is compatible with most roofing 

surfaces. This direct roof application reduces 

installation time by about 60 percent 

and balance of system (BOS) costs by 

up to 50 percent. PowerPly’s front sheet 

of DuPont fluoropolymer and FRP substrate 

yield a module that is both lightweight 

and durable. It weighs about 9.2 

kilograms per square meter and is 40 percent 

lighter than traditional rack mounted 

and ballasted systems. The one-centimeter 

height of the module also minimizes 

potential water ponding issues. Lumeta 

also introduced the Solar S Tile, which 

bines. GE’s solar inverters include gridfriendly 

features that enable them to deliver 

performance in large-scale solar 

installations similar to conventional 

power plants. The one megawatt Brilliance 

solar inverter is UL508C certified 

as well as optimized for direct connection 

to the grid with the use of a medium voltage 

transformer. GE Energy’s control sys- 

displaces approximately three traditional 

concrete or clay tiles so the designs are 

customized to fit exactly the dimensions 

of major tile manufacturers. The solar 

laminate is a standard glass superstrate, 

with EVA encapsulant and TPT substrate 

construction using a monocrystalline cell 

technology. 

www.lumetasolar.com 

Korean company LG Electronics 

launched their high-performance solar 

module at the SPI 2010. The company’s 

monocrystalline module comes with a six 

by ten cells configuration. The company 

offers an output warranty of 12 years at 90 

percent and 25 years at 80 percent. Withstanding 

the maximum load of 5,400 Pascal, 

the LG module is durable and light 

in weight, at 18.93 kilograms. LG developed 

the core standard specifications for 

a solar module and became an official 

test laboratory certified by TÜV Rheinland 

and Underwriters Laboratories. 

The modules themselves are IEC61215 

(Ed 2.0), IEC61730 and UL1703 certified. 

There are three available modules, the 

LG240M1C-G2, the LG235M1C-G2 and 

the LG230M1C-G2. 

www.lg-solar.com 

tem regulates voltage and power in real 

time as well. 

www.gepower.com 


Photo: GE Energy Photo: Lumeta

Photo: SolarBridge Technologies 

Inverters/Satcon 

Next generation edge 

Satcon’s Equinox 500 kW is an inverter 

with aystem intelligence, next-generation 

Edge MPPT technology, and industrial 

grade engineering that maximizes 

system uptime and power production, 

even under the harshest environments. 

The inverter features best in class efficiency 

worth 98.5 percent that are combined 

with three climate packages. There 

is the Equinox Desert package which is 

designed to maximize total power production 

in extreme heat, up to 55 degrees 

Celsius and with airborne contam- 

Inverters/Schneider Electric 

Inverters and controllers 

Schneider Electric launched an array of 

solutions at the SPI, two of which being 

their new grid tie inverters and solar 

charge controllers. The Conext grid tie 

inverter has been redesigned by the company 

in order to offer an improved reliability 

and a low installation cost via the 

ease of installation and integrated features 

of the product. The Conext inverter 

has a high-frequency design in a compact 

enclosure and may be installed as a single 

inverter for a single PV array or a multi- 

Complete Systems/SolarBridge 

Power conversion solution 

SolarBridge Technologies announced the 

lauch of the SolarBridge AC module system, 

a complete microinverter solution. 

The company partners with PV module 

manufacturer Kyocera Solar to bring AC 

modules to the market. According to the 

company, SolarBridge-enabled AC modules 

increase PV system reliability and 

energy harvest, while reducing instal- 


Inverters | Complete Systems | Product News | Solar Power International 2010 

inants. The Equinox Tropical package has 

the same temperature range with leading 

outdoor rated enclosure that protects 

against heavy rainfall and enables 

corrosion resistance in harsh salt environments. 

The Equinox Cold Weather 

package provides protection against 

sleet, snow and ice, with optional operating 

temperatures falling to minus 40 

degrees Celsius. 

www.satcon.com 

ple inverter for larger PV systems. Schneider 

Electric’s Xantrex XW MPPT 80 

600 solar charge controller is one that accepts 

array voltages up to 600 volts. This 

helps to reduce system wiring gauges and 

conduit costs according to the company. 

The controller also tracks the maximum 

power point of a PV array to deliver the 

maximum available current for charging 

batteries. 

www.schneider-electric.com 

Photo: Satcon 

lation costs as compared to traditional, 

DC-based systems with central inverters. 

The SolarBridge Pantheon microinverter 

and PV-DockTM are integrated 

directly onto the back of a solar module 

during module manufacturing. With the 

SolarBridge AC Module System, module 

manufacturers can now offer a complete 

and differentiated AC module solution, 

allowing them to qualify sites that otherwise 

are not suitable for solar due to 

shading or roof orientation. The system 

consists of the Pantheon microinverter, 

the PV-Dock, the Power Manager and the 

Power Portal. 

www.solarbridgetech.com 

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67

Photo: Energy Innovations 

Solar Power International 2010 | Product News | Complete Systems 

Graphic: American Superconductor 

Complete Systems/American Superconductor 

Tying in solar 

American Superconductor (AMSC) 

brings to the market the SolarTie grid interconnection 

solution for photovoltaic 

power plants. This provides a central- 

Complete Systems/Mitsubishi Electric 

A diamond mount 

Mitsubishi Electric showcased their Diamond 

Mount systems solution. The Diamond 

Mount is a complete DC solution 

that includes the Mitsubishi Electric PV 

modules, the ballasted racking system 

designed by P2, all DC balance of system 

components and a combiner box. The 

system is available in 100, 250 and 500 

Complete Systems/Energy Innovations 

The Sunflower 

ized control of real and reactive power 

at the point of interconnection. The SolarTie 

grid interconnection system combines 

two of AMSC’s proven and propri- 

kilowatt blocks and the diamond system 

is highly scalable for 100 kilowatt to 

100 megawatt projects. The system is also 

modular which makes it quick to assemble 

and can be ordered in any tilt angle to 

maximize energy production. It is suited 

for large ground or roof mount PV systems. 

The balance of system components 

Energy Innovations presented its Sunflower, 

a highly concentrated photovoltaic 

(HCPV) system at the SPI. It integrates 

PV modules, advanced tracking, unique 

power optimization, an embedded controller 

and wireless communication into 

one solution to produce cost-competitive 

solar power. The system consists of modules 

that hit 29 percent module efficiency, 

according to the company. The system 

utilizes a 1,200:1 sun concentrating optical 

system and high-efficiency triple 

etary technologies: D-VAR STATCOM 

technology and PowerModule power 

converter systems. By coupling best-inclass 

power converter capabilities with 

AMSC’s dynamic reactive compensation 

technology, the SolarTie product represents 

a fully optimized solution for utility-scale 

solar photovoltaic (PV) power 

plant developers. Employing the same 

technology as AMSC’s D-VAR system, 

the SolarTie system provides instantaneous 

detection, accurate response and 

immediate results, ensuring efficient energy 

production and precise grid management. 

For example, if a disturbance occurs 

(voltage sag or swell, passing clouds 

or other event) the system will command 

the PV plant’s SolarTie inverters to provide 

the needed reactive support to control 

the voltage at the POI. 

www.amsc.com 

are pre-sourced and designed to work 

together and the aluminum extrusions 

and stainless steel fasteners are used in 

the mounting system to ensure long-term 

reliability. The ground goes unpenetrated 

and the aluminum content is recycled. 

www.mitsubishielectricsolar.com 

junction cells. The tempered glass composite 

primary lens enhances reliability 

and reduces soiling. The micro-converter 

technology improves the performance 

of shaded modules and inverter performance 

in low light conditions. The performance 

is monitored by a system that 

allows module level performance statistics, 

fault alarms, remote monitoring and 

field management. 

www.energyinnovations.com 

68 11 / 2010 | www.pv-magazine.com

and the rising 

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the and first the industry rising 

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rgets to system 

oject developers, 

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70 


Global Solar Energy temporarily puts capacity expansion on hold while 

focusing on its core technology and markets, says CEO Jeff Britt. 

What kind of electrical yield are you getting at your factories 

today? And how much are you producing? 

We’ve been working very diligently over the last year bringing 

processes up to speed, getting efficiencies and yield up to 

full volume. Most recently, we’ve been demonstrating electrical 

tests that yield efficiency above 11 percent. We are running at 

95 percent electrical yield. This means that we yield 95 percent 

of strings tested after stringing, which is the final production 

process. Our 2011 production throughput will be dependent on 

the market pull for our newly introduced BIPV product. The 

uncertainty from today leads to a range of possible throughputs 

for 2011. 

Have plans for the 140-megawatt expansion changed? 

We were really moving toward the expansion of the Tucson factory 

and had plans in place to move on that, but we ran into the 

same economic storm as everyone else and temporarily put our 

capacity expansion on hold while we focus on our core technology 

and markets. We’re running at a reduced capacity while 

doing our market development. 

With falling panel prices and a risk-averse financing environment, 

has bankability been a challenge? 

A time of change 

CEO interview: In 2008, Global Solar Energy became one 

of the first companies to reach volume production of CIGS 

cells. pv magazine spoke with CEO Jeff Britt, the company’s 

former Chief Technology Officer, to find out about Global 

Solar’s changing strategy in response to the evolving solar 

landscape, its efforts to increase its bankability and his view 

on the building-integrated PV (BIPV) market. 

Absolutely: it’s gotten more difficult in the last couple of years 

because of the declining prices of crystalline modules. When 

the delta is large, investors are willing to overlook a few items 

or take a little bit of risk on a new technology. But when prices 

have come down and come as close as they are, fewer people 

are willing to take a risk. The days of easy financing are gone 

for now. There’s a lot of scrutiny on the bottom line. 

How have you been dealing with this? 

Establishing bankability is a slow and sometimes painful process. 

You’re in a Catch 22 position because you can’t sell it until 

you’re proven it and you can’t prove it until you sell it. So there’s 

a lot of hard ground work being done on projects by virtually 

all thin film companies right now. There’s a lot of background 

at Global Solar in accelerated testing to validate the final product, 

but that’s never the final proof. What an investor wants to 

know is, “Do you have projects in the fields for 25 years so I can 

tell me project is going to work well and deliver the returns that 

I modeled?” We’ve been slowly establishing bankability by selling 

fields of our strings in glass modules – in Italy and in several 

other projects right now – to generate more data. There was 

a paper by Fotowatio at the Photon conference last December 

showing good performance from our first field that we installed 


around our factory. These are the things we have to do to show 

the technology is viable, reliable and predictable. 

Has it become more difficult to compete with crystalline 

solar? 

Yes, originally when we were planning these factories, we asked, 

“Is the price of our technology going to be much cheaper than 

the price of a crystalline-silicon module?” We felt we had a 

big advantage. But then it turned out the price is only going to 

be slightly lower than crystalline silicon, and 

we spoke with customers, the price wasn’t sufficiently 

low enough for people to accept that 

risk. It’s been harder to sell these technologies 

in general, and it’s certainly been the case for 

Global Solar. But ultimately, we want to be in a 

market where we don’t have to compete directly with crystalline 

silicon. A crystalline-silicon glass rigid module doesn’t fill 

every need and we want to satisfy markets that can’t be satisfied 

with that product. 

How close can you come on price? 

Prices have shrunk quite a bit to 1.50 to 2 dollars per watt for 

crystalline silicon and First Solar is between 1 and 1.50 dollars. 

We’re not on a scale where we can compete with First Solar yet 

because the volume of production is a big driver. It’s a matter 

of slowly growing the size of the projects and driving our costs 

down. Fundamentally, the CIGS technology does have the capability 

of coming out with the lowest price of any technology 

out there, and Global Solar has the advantage of the highest 

conversion efficiency of this technology. Ultimately, the efficiency 

is going to determine if these technologies are successful 

or not. 

How has the changing landscape altered your strategy? 

Part of our strategy is to diversify our products. Product diversification 

is an important way of expanding our portfolio 

instead of waiting for the market to take off. We have a line of 

foldable products we sell to the military, outdoor retailers and 

other people who want portable power. That was our original 

business line, and we’ve done well in growing that business 

and generating revenue there. More recently, we’ve been selling 

strings for solar modules and working with partners – like 

Yohkon – that encapsulate them in glass. The third area we’ve 

focused on is selling strings for building-integrated products, 

like Dow Solar’s roof shingle product. We will continue to sell 

strings to Dow in the future; it’s an important part of our business 

going forward. Finally, we’re in the process of launching 

new products in the building-integrated PV space that we manufacture 

completely at Global Solar – true BIPV products in 

a flexible format that take advantage of the unique aspects of 

our product. 

Doesn’t it take additional capital and resources to pursue 

multiple markets at the same time? 

The BIPV product utilities the capacity we have right now. 

There’s no change in our process flow or in our factory; just 

some additional capacity to do some product preparation and 

lamination, and we’re in the process of scaling up that process 

in our factories. But we constantly have to pay attention to defocusing. 

It puts a lot of stress and strain on our business develop- 


“Product diversification 

is an important way of 

expanding our portfolio.” 


ment and marketing group to do that. We’ve recently brought 

on a new VP of Marketing and Business Development, Jean- 

Nöel Poirier, and that’s why we brought him in: to help address 

the challenges and difficulties of multiple markets. 

What proportion of Global Solar do these various businesses 

make up? 

Most of the business is divided between the portable foldable 

products and strings for utility modules. The BIPV products 

this year represent a much smaller portion of 

our revenue. With Dow, for instance, we’re still 

working with them as they go through their 

development process and making sure their 

needs are met. They have a scaleup plan that 

isn’t a huge requirement for this year. And with 

our own product, since we’re not launching until next year, it 

doesn’t play much of a role in this year’s revenue. The strings 

GlObal SOlar EnErGy 

After more than a decade of research and development, 2008 seemed to 

be Global Solar Energy’s year. It was one of the first companies to reach 

volume production of thin film solar cells made from copper, indium, 

gallium and selenium (CIGS) when it began mass production at its first 

plant in March of 2008 in its hometown of Tucson, Arizona. After starting 

up that 40-megawatt plant, it also opened a second factory with approximately 

35 megawatts of capacity in Berlin and flipped the switch on a 

750-kilowatt solar field – owned by Spain’s Fotowatio Renewable Energy – 

using its panels the same year. 

Unlike most of its competitors, Global Solar was not making solar panels. 

Instead, it manufactured CIGS cells on flexible sheets of stainless-steel, 

and sold strings of cells to customers who would package them into glass 

panels. Armed with a full order book, Global Solar planned to ramp its 

Tucson plant to full capacity in 2009, reach full capacity at its Berlin plant 

and expand its Tucson plant to 140 megawatts by this year, then grow to 

more than 500 megawatts of production by 2013. 

At the time – during a shortage of solar-grade silicon, skyrocketing 

demand for panels and sky-high panel prices – the outlook for CIGS was 

sunny enough to lure dozens of new companies and hundreds of millions 

of dollars of investment. And because CIGS’ main challenge seemed to be 

taking the technology from the lab to commercial manufacturing, news 

of volume production was a big deal. Advocates touted the material’s 

potential for lower costs than crystalline silicon and higher efficiency than 

the cadmium-telluride panels popularized by thin film leader First Solar. 

After years of research and development, it seemed the technology was 

ready to take off. 

But things changed. Like the rest of the solar industry, Global Solar has 

been affected by plunging prices for crystalline-silicon panels since the 

end of 2008, as well as increased competition and declining feed-in tariffs 

and other subsidies. The company has responded with higher efficiencies, 

in September 2009 announcing a champion efficiency of 15.45 percent – 

confirmed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy 

Laboratory – for its material and a peak efficiency of 11.7 percent for 

production-line CIGS strings made at its factories; new partnerships, such 

as one with Dow Solar Solutions, which in May 2009 launched a new line 

of solar roof shingles using Global Solar’s cells; new projects, including a 

820-kilowatt rooftop installation in Italy, announced in May, using Yohkon 

Energía panels made from Global Solar cells; and new products, including 

a thin film solar charger – called Sunlinq – with a USB connection, and a 

thin, flexible building-integrated panel – named Powerflex – that sticks 

directly to roofs without any frames. The company plans to make its 

Powerflex panels, unveiled in August, available next year. 

71

72 


CEO Jeff Britt, the company’s former Chief Technology Officer, was promoted 

to the top position in November of 2009. 

market is bigger, and the portable market is a small market but 

healthy – it’s got good margins and we like it for that reason. It’s 

definitely got healthier margins right now than the strings, and 

I can’t believe how many people in the world have cell phones 

and don’t have access to other electricity. Solar chargers are frequently 

used in places like Africa. 

In BIPV, why did you decide to make your own panels instead 

of working with partners? 

We will continue to work with those partners, but we wanted 

to do this ourselves so that we’d have the ability to really understand 

all the technological issues with this product. We really 

understand some of the challenges from 

a technical standpoint and wanted to make 

sure we could control that process and that 

the product quality is high and reliable. We 

took a close look at our business plan about 

the middle of 2009, really stepped back and 

said, “How are we going to keep up with our competition? 

What’s the fastest path to profitability?” It really required us 

to focus on the unique attributes of our product. A laminate 

behind a sheet of glass doesn’t do more than take advantage 

of the low cost of the product. So what product in the market 

right now really does take advantage of our unique attributes? 

BIPV. We made the decision to move forward with that product 

ourselves, a product that brings not only the flexible attributes, 

but the high efficiency, to products out there. 

BIPV is still a small market today. Why makes you think 

it’ll grow quickly enough to be attractive? 

There’s a lot of roofing space available and a finite amount of 

land, and we see a real movement away from large fields to rooftops. 

People recognize it makes sense to put solar power on a 

rooftop. Less transmission is needed and it doesn’t waste a finite 

amount of land. We see this in Japan in particular right 

now. It represents a changing marketplace. And many rooftops 

can’t accept the weight of crystalline-silicon glass panels. 

“Efficiency is going to 

determine if CIGS technologies 

are successful or not.” 

If you have a nice lightweight product that can come in and 

serve that need, that’s a unique opportunity. It is a small market, 

but it’s developing in the right direction – we can clearly 

see that. Many analysts are recognizing its huge growth potential. 

I’ve seen estimates of up to a 3 billion dollar market by 

2013, just for this portion of it. 

How do you plan to tap into this market? 

Our business plan calls for us to start off at zero and grow slowly 

over the next two to three years. We don’t expect a market will 

magically grow overnight, so it’s going to take a lot of missionary 

work with existing companies to find out what their needs 

are and to make our product as useful as possible to them to 

make sure it can do what current products cannot and to help 

them with their processes. We’re in the middle of this process 

now. We think we’ll be through the certification process by 

the fourth quarter of this year and will have samples of products 

in the hands of our potential customers several months 

before that. 

Where do you see the biggest markets for BIPV? 

We’re heard a lot about some really nice BIPV incentives being 

developed in countries like France and Japan. We consider 

Japan to be a very interesting market because they have a problem 

with earthquakes and land availability and that’s really 

suited to a rooftop product that’s lightweight. We see that as a 

unique opportunity. If you have an earthquake, there’s always 

a concern that the building will come down and having a lot 

of heavy glass on a roof is not ideal from a safety standpoint. 

There are great structural building codes in Japan. 

Would weight be your main advantage in a market like 

Japan? 

Primarily the weight and also our efficiencies will be comparable 

to crystalline silicon. We’ve demonstrated we can make efficiencies 

comparable, so it’s a question of con- 

tinuing that path. We’re currently averaging 

11% efficiency from the line. In our technology 

roadmap, we’re shooting for an efficiency 

of around 14 percent within three years. And 

definitely some of the incentives that are in 

place favor technologies that deliver more power from a given 

rooftop space. That’s true of incentives in Italy right now – you 

get a higher tariff if you’re actually using the generated power 

yourself. That’s the driver for efficiency. 

Efficiencies are always improving. If that’s one of your main 

differentiators, how can you ensure keeping competitive? 

Sure, it’s a horse race. We’ve got a moving target and we can’t 

plan on our competitors remaining stagnant. We have to continue, 

as I’m sure they are doing, to reduce the cost of the 

product. We have a lot of opportunities for reducing cost and 

improving efficiencies that crystalline-silicon folks aren’t necessarily 

able to do. 

In mid-2008, before the financial crisis, you’d expected to be 

able to become profitable in early 2009. When do you expect 

to turn a profit now? 

2011. u 

The interview was conducted by Jennifer Kho 


Photos: Solland Solar 

Is this what modules will look like in the future? At EU PVSEC, Schott Solar and Solland Solar announced plans for 

pilot manufacturing back contact solar cells. 

Discreet wiring 

Back contact cells: The first solar cells with contacts located on their back side were 

made in the mid-1970s. Although they offer many advantages, only a few models have 

been able to really conquer the market up to now. Now, cooperation between Solland 

Solar and Schott Solar is supposed to change that. 

The fact that Sunweb solar cells from 

the Dutch company Solland Solar must 

be something special can be seen at first 

sight: The silvery contacts on the front 

side cover the silicon surface in wound 

courses. At sixteen points, the structures 

converge in the shape of a star and lend 

the cell an almost organic appearance – 

as if it were covered with cobwebs. However, 

what is visible on the front side is 

only one part of the secret of these cells. 

“Our Sunweb cells are back contact 

cells,” explains Thomas van der Zijden 

of Solland Solar. “We conduct the current 

from the front through the cell to 

the back side. There all of the contacts 


are located within the module.” This 

way, the surface that is irradiated by the 

sun can be maximized, and at the same 

time the losses caused by electrical resistances 

are reduced. And this is demonstrated 

by the efficiency. “Compared with 

a standard cell we have a gain of 0.3 percentage 

points at the cell level alone,” he 

points out. 

That must have convinced the experts 

at Schott Solar, because in September 

the company in Mainz announced at 

the EU PVSEC in Valencia that it would 

now cooperate with Solland Solar in the 

area of back contact cells. According to 

Product Manager Thomas Block, “We are 


planning a pilot installation that we will 

commission in February next year. After 

a brief startup phase we anticipate that 

we will then enter into near-series production 

in the middle of the year 2011, so 

that we can sell limited quantities in the 

second half of the year.” 

If this succeeds, it would represent a 

great step toward launching back contact 

cells onto the solar market. At EU 

PVSEC two years ago, Solland Solar presented 

these cells and a hand-made module 

using them. At the time the company 

still wanted to sell these cells to module 

manufacturers. However, this represents 

a difficult undertaking since module pro- 

73

74 


duction of the Sunweb cell does not function 

with standard technology – although 

technology to this end has already been 

developed at the Energy Research Centre 

of the Netherlands (ECN). 

Last January, Solland Solar announced 

that it wanted to develop a pilot line together 

with the printed circuit board 

specialist AT&S Austria Technologie 

& Systemtechnik AG. This project 

has meanwhile been abandoned. Now the 

two companies only work together when 

it comes to the required back sheets. 

Solland and Schott – in the eyes of a 

chemist, the two form a perfect pair. 

Solland contributes the cell and module 

technology to the partnership, while 

Schott Solar offers the concept for series 

production as well as materials expertise 

and experience in module quality tests. 

Obviously it should not take them long to 

realize their common aim. But what is really 

behind this particular technology? 

Solution for the bus bar dilemma 

The heart of a solar cell is a thin layer 

that consists of a semiconductor, usually 

of silicon. When light falls on the material, 

pairs with a positive and a negative 

charge are created in its interior. The trick 

is then to separate the two charges from 

each other. In order to do so the inside of 

the silicon layer must be structured by intentionally 

making them impure by adding 

other elements (doping). A pinch of 

boron increases the conductivity of the 

silicon for positive charges. On the front 

side facing the light a bit of phosphorus 

makes certain that this is where the negative 

charges will gather. The interface 

Various concepts for back contact cells 

Standard cell: With the incidence of light 

the charges between the emitter and the 

base material are separated. Negative charge 

carriers gather at the emitter (yellow), and 

positive (red) charge carriers at the back 

surface eld. There are electrical contacts on 

the top and on the bottom of the cell. 

where these segments meet, the p-n junction, 

ensures that the charge carriers produced 

by the light are separated. 

Metal contacts at both poles bleed off 

the charges and thus allow for the flow 

of electric current. The back of the contact 

in the case of conventional cells consists 

of a large layer of aluminum, on the 

front a lattice-like structure of thin silver 

fingers which converge to a band, the 

so-called bus bar. Here is where developers 

have to compromise – the larger this 

structure is, the less losses caused by electrical 

resistance. On the other hand, the 

silver contacts also overshadow valuable 

silicon surfaces. Thus they may not be too 

large. Back contact cells are supposed to 

get around this dilemma. 

“Back contact solar cells represent a 

family of different design types. What is 

common to them is that the two contacts, 

i.e. the positive and the negative, are located 

on the back of the cell,” explains 

Ralf Preu, who works with this technology 

at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar 

Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg. He differentiates 

between three different designs 

(see diagram below). 

The MWT cell (Metal Wrap Through) is 

the one that comes closest to the conventional 

standard solar cell. On the front it 

still has a metallic contact lattice, but the 

broad bus bar is located on the back. Both 

structures are linked by an electrically 

conductive connection by means of tiny, 

metal-filled holes which run through the 

silicon layer. Usually there no more than 

fifty channels per cell. 

However, things look differently in 

the case of an EWT cell (Emitter Wrap 

Metallization Wrap Through (MWT) solar cell: 

On the top there are still contact ngers. 

However, they are “wrapped” through to the 

back side via metallized holes so that the 

electrical contacts are only on the back side. 

Thus the contact ngers on the top are thinner 

than in the case of standard cells. 

Emitter Wrap Through (EWT) solar cell: 

The emitter is “wrapped” through to the 

back side of the cell via numerous holes. 

Thus the contacts are on the back suface. 

Since the vias are closer than in the case 

of MWT technology, no contact ngers are 

required on the front side of the cell. 

Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC) solar cell: 

The emitter and back surface eld for 

contacting are only on the bottom of the solar 

cell. There are no contacts on the emitter layer 

on the front. It is only used to reduce surface 

losses. 

Yellow: n-doped emitter (negative pole) Transparent gray: p-doped base material Red: back surface eld (base contact/positive pole) White: metal contacts 

The fewer conductive strips required on the front side, the more light penetrates into the cell. 

Through) where the channels are not 

filled with metal, but rather with the 

doped semiconductor material. Ralf Preu 

explains: “It has many more holes, on the 

order of several ten thousands. They are 

also necessary because the metal lattice is 

omitted and only the heavily doped semiconductor 

area is used for current transport 

on the front. The holes have to been 

set much closer in order to avoid resistance 

losses.” 

But this results in the fact that the back 

side is somewhat more complicated in 

structure than in the case of an MWT 

cell. Positively and negatively conducting 

areas form a pattern that remind one of 

two interlinking combs. Thus long conductive 

strips, the ends of which merge 

into the bus bar, run over the entire back 

surface of the cell. This design tends to be 

used for small cells in order to minimize 

resistance losses as much as possible. 

The back of a so-called “Interdigitated 

Back Junction” cell is similarly complex 

in design. In this case, the charge carrier 

separation no longer takes place on the 

front side, but on the back instead. Positively 

and negatively conducting areas alternate 

there and are likewise picked off 

by interconnected metal contacts. 

“That is the archetype of a high efficiency 

cell,” comments Preu, a photovoltaics 

expert. “This cell concept was presented 

already in the mid-1980s. And that 

is also the design with which the highest 

efficiencies both at the cell and at module 

level are achieved at the moment.” However, 

the high efficiency values also have 

their price. On the one hand, it is very expensive 

to structure the back surface of 

Source: Dissertation from Holger Knauss, University of Constance, 2007 


Graphics: Solarpraxis AG/Harald Schütt

The metal channels from the front to the back of the cell are located at the 

light spots. The spider-like structure transports the current to these vias. 

the cell. And, on the other hand, silicon of the highest quality 

must be used for this cell type. The reason being because before 

the pairs of charge carriers on the back side are separated, 

they must travel a relatively long distance through the silicon 

layer. Any disturbance in the crystal lattice, any impurity may 

cause the positive and negative charge to recombine with each 

other and thus become lost for the generation of current. Already 

in the year 2003, the American company Sunpower put 

cells based on this principle on the market. In June of this year 

the company announced that it had set a new world record for 

solar cells with an efficiency of 24.2 percent. 

Module manufacturing advantages 

With values like these, photovoltaic cells from Solland cannot 

keep up. In contrast to the California company Sunpower 

the experts of the joint venture of Heerlen and Alzenau rely on 

the somewhat more conventional MWT design. Sixteen metal 

channels that connect the fine network on the front side with 

the bus bars on the back run through each Sunweb cell. 

“MWT is a proven technology that can be put on the market 

quickly,” judges Solland’s Director of Sales Thomas van der Zijden. 

“The production process resembles conventional solar cell 

production. We can simply imprint our network pattern onto 

the cells. The holes must only be bored with a laser beforehand 

in order to manufacture the contacts afterwards. For this reason 

too, no particularly high investment is required in order 

to switch to this method. You don’t have to set up completely 

new production plants.” 

This fact can also be confirmed by Thomas Block from Schott 

Solar: “The short time to market was an important reason for 

us to rely on the MWT cells. In this regard this concept is the 

most promising for us. The technology is competitive on the 

premium market and particularly suitable for the private sector 

with its on-roof installations.” 

Yet this cell type can particularly display its full strength in 

particular when it comes to connecting individual cells to modules. 

With conventional models the units are connected with 

the help of soldered on small copper bands. In this manner 

strings are created that in turn are linked among themselves 

into arrays. The soldering on of the contacts is time-consuming 

and subjects the thin cells to high thermal stress. In addition, 

with this kind of contacting the cells have to maintain a 

certain distance to each other. With back contact cells these 

disadvantages are all omitted. The key concept in this case is 

“pick and place.” 


Advertisement 

Enersolar 6.A1

76 


“We work with a special foil for the 

modules. The cells are positioned on it 

and then they are not touched again,” 

explains Thomas van der Zijden. “Conductive 

strips and integrated contact 

points are located on the foil. They can 

be melted with a laser. Thus the conductive 

connections to the backs of the solar 

cells are created.” The procedure can be 

automated for the most part, saving time 

and money. And because the back contact 

cells no longer have to be soldered 

together with small copper bands, they 

can also be positioned much closer together 

on the module. The result is that 

the array packing efficiency is enhanced 

once again. 

Compatible with the thin ones 

For Schott Solar the back contact technology 

is very attractive for another reason 

as well: “Pick and place” reduces the 

production scrap because it simplifies the 

entire manufacturing chain of the modules 

by cutting out several production 

steps. The cells do not have to be moved 

and processed as frequently as with the 

conventional method. And this in turn 

greatly reduces the breakage rates of the 

crystalline silicon wafers. 

This becomes noticeable particularly 

in the case of thin films because the risk 

of cell breakage is normally particularly 

high in their case. “In future we will 

continue to be forced to save on material 

when manufacturing solar modules, 

particularly on silicon,” points out Lars 

Module manufacturing with Solland cells 

Both the plus and negative poles of the cells are located on the back side. 

Waldmann, Public Relation Manager at 

Schott Solar. “This means that the wafers 

will become thinner. And in the processing 

of thinner wafers there are production 

steps that are particularly critical 

because of the risk of breakage.” Soldering 

for instance means mechanical and 

thermal stress for the fragile silicon layers. 

Precisely these steps can be simplified 

when it comes to the interconnection 

of back contact cells, which makes 

Glass 

Embedding foil 

Back contact cell 

Embedding foil 

and back sheet foil 

Source: Solland Solar Cells BV 

With this manufacturing technology a connector no longer has to be soldered between the cells. 

Contacting is effected by a conductive strip on the underlying foil. 

this technology attractive for thin wafers. 

Ralf Preu, the expert at Fraunhofer ISE, 

sees Solland Solar as being in a good position 

with foil-based interconnection. 

In his opinion this is precisely where cell 

manufacturers ran into problems in the 

past: “Although numerous potential savings 

are offered, module manufacturers 

are generally quite reticent – because they 

are the ones that have to warrant for the 

long life span of the modules.” And therefore 

it is not that easy to put the cells on 

the free market. Up to now that has made 

life difficult for companies such as Solland, 

seeing as they were cell manufacturers 

and not module manufacturers. 

But a significant change is underway. 

“Last October we organized a workshop 

here at ISE where we also tried to introduce 

standardization concepts with cell 

and module manufacturers.” The reason 

being that MWT cells can feature completely 

different designs. If every module 

manufacturer has to match its products 

to these different designs, then it will be 

difficult to recruit module manufacturers 

for this task. 

In the case of Solland, the testing and 

materials expertise of Schott Solar is to 

provide for the essential breakthrough on 

the market. The company from Mainz is 

able to look back on decades of experience 

in photovoltaic applications. It has 

just presented a module built from multi- 


crystalline solar cells that stands out with 

a record efficiency of 17.6 percent. The experts 

at Schott are currently unmatched 

worldwide. Why at all then is the solar 

company interested in the Solland module, 

whose efficiency is a good percentage 

point below that of its own models? 

Unexhausted potential 

Thomas Block regards the potential offered 

by MWT technology as far from exhausted. 

He is confident that the performance 

of Solland modules can be further 

enhanced with the know-how offered by 

Schott Solar. “That starts with the wafer, 

then the cell – all the way through to the 

module, particularly when it comes to industrializing 

the technology.” 

Several fractions of a percentage of improved 

efficiency could be culled from the 

cells, for example, if the backs are passivated 

by means of a special procedure. 

An additional layer of a dielectric such 

as, for instance, silicon oxide provides for 

a higher energy output. On the one hand, 

the layer works like a mirror that reflects 

long-wave (i.e. red and infrared) light 

back into the active layer. Thus the probability 

increases that charged particles de- 

velop from this light. And, on the other 

hand, passivation prevents those charge 

carriers from forming a pair again and 

thus becoming lost for the generation of 

current. Schott Solar employed a special 

type of passivation from a combination of 

different dielectric layers with local contacts 

(PERC structure), for example, for 

its recently presented record module. In 

principle this design can also be transferred 

to back contact cells in order to increase 

their efficiency even further. 

Another property that makes Solland 

modules so attractive for Schott 

Solar is their long term stability. Schott 

has a quality laboratory with numerous 

controlled environment chambers at its 

Alzenau location, where the aging of photovoltaic 

installations under the impact 

of wind and weather can be simulated. 

After all, the modules are supposed to last 

for twenty-five years at least – without diminished 

performance. 

Up to now this was verified for crystalline 

cells by using the criteria of the IEC 

standard 61215. It specifies that the cells 

are exposed to an air humidity of ninetyfive 

percent for more than one thousand 

hours at a temperature of eighty-five de- 


grees Celsius. A second module is then 

submitted to shock treatment; that is, 

it is heated up from minus forty-five to 

plus eighty-five degrees Celsius and then 

cooled down again one thousand times. 

Schott Solar, however, imposes even 

stricter standards at double the test duration 

and/or cycle number. The Solland 

modules stood the test, Thomas Block assures: 

“Since the MWT modules have a 

more simple construction, there are less 

potential sources of error. They are so 

good in terms of quality that they even 

satisfy our Schott Solar quality criteria.” 

So Solland and Schott Solar obviously 

have good reasons to confidently welcome 

a joint future. Both partners stress 

that the main aim of the cooperation is 

to get the technology ripe for the market. 

Nevertheless, the launch of the products 

is to take place separately via different 

sales channels. The companies are not 

concerned with a single product; instead, 

they aim to initiate an entire strategy, a 

roadmap based on MWT technology 

and the methods for module integration. 

Both companies see the possibility of future 

progress, both in terms of efficiency 

and cost reduction. u Arndt Reuning 

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Photos: Solon SE 

78 


You began working at Solon at the beginning of the year. 

Why was the company doing poorly at the time? 

At that time Solon had a number of problems. In the years 

2007/2008 Solon was one of the really big players in the solar 

power plant business in Spain. As a result of the change in the 

subsidy terms and conditions at the end of the year 2008 additional 

volumes were cut to a fifth of those previously achieved. 

And only a fraction of this amount was implemented in the year 

2009. As a result, the market in 2009 collapsed to five percent 

of its size in the previous year. Like many others, Solon failed 

to realize a single solar park project in Spain 

in 2009. At the same time, there was also the 

very negative circumstance that project financing 

fell through everywhere with the outbreak 

of the financial crisis. Consequently, there were 

also serious delays in the case of other largescale 

projects, or they could not be carried out at all. And, with 

the collapse of the Spanish market our home market in Germany 

came under a lot of pressure since all of the international 

manufacturers then tried to push their way into this particular 

market. We were able to keep the volumes sold in Germany 

at a stable level in 2009, but only with sharply declining prices. 

Within the space of only a few months module prices gave way 

by thirty percent. And, at the time, our sales division was also 

not set up well enough to compensate elsewhere for the losses 

on the Spanish market. 

What can you improve on quickly and concretely? 

We could, for example, enhance the design of our agreements. 

It turned out to be an operative problem that Solon – as was cus- 

“We are able to hold our 

own when it comes 

to production costs.” 

Stefan Säuberlich has served as Chief Executive Officer of Solon SE since 

January 2010. Prior to that, he acted as the managing director for finances at 

a shipyard. In his opinion the cyclic project business in the building of ships 

is similar to that of the solar industry. He considers his company’s crisis as 

having been overcome and now anticipates further growth. 

Outsourcing 

and streamlining 

CEO-Interview: Solon, one Europe’s largest PV 

manufacturers, experienced a difficult economic situation 

at the beginning of the year. Chief Executive Officer, 

Stefan Säuberlich, talks about the problems that Berlin- 

headquartered company solved and how he advertises 

the company’s products. 

tomary in the industry – often worked with framework agreements 

in which the contracting parties agreed on the volume 

to be supplied. This, however, often took place without the corresponding 

contractual protection. That is, no contractual penalties 

were provided in the event that quantities were not purchased; 

often not even a minimum purchase had been agreed. 

In the worst case that meant that we had framework agreements 

for a lot of megawatts with several customers and in 

the end had not supplied a single module. This was certainly 

not a problem specific to Solon, but it hit us particularly hard 

because if you structure your production plan- 

ning on the basis of such agreements, then you 

run the risk of substantial stock manufacturing. 

That ties up a lot of capital. And if prices decline 

so rapidly at the same time, then depreciation 

is an additional threat. Of course we learned 

from these experiences. That is why we now make certain that 

we have a certain payment guarantee, either by agreeing on an 

installation payment in general – which is then set off with acceptance 

– or appropriate penalties if minimum quantities are 

not purchased. 

With your production in Germany are you then able to stave 

off the competition from the Far East? 

As a rule we are able to hold our own when it comes to production 

costs. We are often asked whether we are able to compete 

worldwide with our personnel costs in Germany. But due 

to the high degree of automation, production costs in module 

manufacturing are mainly determined by equipment capital 

costs. Thus personnel costs as a factor are not what is crucial. 


They amount to perhaps three or four percent. So we must take 

a look elsewhere. What is much more crucial for Solon is that 

we reduce our product variety. In the future we will no longer 

offer a good dozen products when we generate more than 

ninety percent of our sales with only three products. Particularly 

because product variety is responsible for the fact that we 

have to re-equip our production lines again and again, and that 

in turn generates costs for changeover and downtimes. If we 

get a handle on these changeover costs and downtimes, then 

we will also be much more competitive when it comes to production 

costs. 

Will installers have to adjust to the fact that the products 

that they install are no longer available? 

No, because we will sort out those that have hardly been in demand 

up to now. In the past we offered products that contributed 

barely one percent to sales. Others will be slightly adapted 

so that we will achieve greater standardization. 

What is your production capacity at the moment? 

A good 400 megawatts, if I have to provide a quick answer. 

And if you have more time? How much will you produce this 

year? 

We are emerging from the crisis year of 2009 with approximately 

130 megawatts of produced quantity. Our plan for this 

year was to increase to 230 megawatts. Now we even anticipate 

more than 250 megawatts. 


Can you expand your production in the future to such a degree 

that you can keep up with the large Chinese competitors 

in terms of quantity? 

No, and that is not the strategy that we are pursuing. Solon is a 

premium manufacturer, being the leader in quantity is not our 

primary goal. With the volumes that we will achieve this year 

we will already come close to what we ourselves can produce 

with a good 400-megawatt capacity. We actually have full capacity 

only if we produce around the clock; that is, 52 weeks a 

year, seven days a week and 24 hours a day. However, if we consider 

the fact that we produce five days a week and have perhaps 

only one shift on Saturdays, then there is a decline in capacity. 

Since there continues to be positive development in terms 

of demand, we assume that we will require greater production 

capacity already in the near future. But if we examine a possible 

increase in our capacity, then we will do so not in order to 

keep pace with the production volumes of our Chinese competitors, 

but rather because we recognize corresponding sales 

potential for our premium modules. For this reason we will already 

be thinking about expansion very soon. 

How do you want to expand further? 

We would like to repeat the success model of our manufacturing 

plant in Greifswald. This means that we will cooperate 

with a production service provider. However, this will function 

only if our own staff provide active support for the production 

process and thus ensure that one hundred percent Solon quality 

is the result. 

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80 


Although Solon has reduced its range of products and services, further innovations are also planned – such as lightweight modules installed onto 

trapezoidal sheet metal. 

How can production service providers manufacture more 

inexpensively than you do? 

The reason is because they are able to compensate for fluctuations 

in production much more easily. As a rule, a production 

service provider does not only work for a single industry, but 

rather for clients from different industries. Thus such a provider 

would only have the same problems as we do if demand cycles 

were the same for all of the provider’s production segments. 

But in periods of sluggishness on the photovoltaics market 

such a provider cannot manufacture radios, chips, or anything 

else in the solar module factory in which production is 

carried out for you. 

No, that would not be the case. However, to some degree a 

production service provider can compensate for fluctuations 

through temporary employment, for example. Of course not for 

an unlimited period. But at times the same provider can shift 

personnel from left to right by operating in different industries 

with different cycles. We could not do that. Either we have the 

personnel, and they are our personnel, or we do not. 

What is quality for you? 

When we supply a Solon module with a product warranty of 25 

years, then the module must absolutely keep this performance 

promise and even be capable of being deployed 

for a much longer period. 

For this reason we carry out very efficient testing 

for a very long time in order to determine 

how the different production materials work together. 

We carry out corresponding tests in controlled 

environment facilities that verify the life span. We also 

perform very intensive testing of the cell quality. That is why 

we are so popular as technology partners among the world’s 

cell suppliers. 

“We have our surveys 

which tell us where 

the real problems are.” 

Do many cells fall through? 

Yes. 

For what reasons? 

Quality. For example, a lack of uniform quality, so that you 

cannot reasonably process the cells, or there are problems with 

workability, for example with the connectors that we solder 

onto the cells or the cell breakage rates are too high. 

There is no such thing as a non-quality provider given that 

every manufacturer claims to supply high quality. How do 

you convince customers that you in fact really provide very 

good quality? 

I am not allowed to engage in comparative advertising, but if 

one takes a look at the modules in Spanish solar parks today, 

then it can be seen that the laminates there do not come apart 

where Solon modules are in use. 

How do you convince solar installers on the German market 

to offer your modules to customers? 

We offer numerous training courses for installers, and we have 

developed a partner program, Solon Solar Pioneers. Last year 

it was introduced on a wide scale to Italy and has now also 

started in Germany. In this case training courses are carried 

out and a certificate is issued. Furthermore, we 

offer comprehensive marketing support. And 

we have our surveys that tell us where the real 

problems are for the installers. We discover 

time and again that solar experts gladly install 

Solon modules onto roofs in Germany because 

they can be reasonably worked. 

Many providers do that. Can you still stand out from the 

crowd? 


Well, yes, but the solar installer also looks at how good the modules 

are and which ones have caused the least amount of problems 

during and after installation. So the installer will be able 

to advertise how good these modules are wherever they have 

already been installed, hold up and perform. 

Have you made any other progress in solving the problems 

at Solon? 

Yes. First of all, we have in the meantime received a government-backed 

borrowing facility in the amount of 275 million 

euros. It lasts to the end of the year 2011 and consists of both a 

cash and a loan guaranty component. The loan guaranty component 

in the amount of 110 million euros is particularly important 

to us. These are sureties and endorsements provided 

by banks. 

Are other companies envious of this? 

No, I don’t think so. A government guarantee is anything 

but inexpensive. If you can get by without it, then you should. 

Solon needed it because of the crisis and as a result has much 

higher loan guaranty costs than required under normal circumstances. 

Are other companies able to receive such government guarantees? 

In order to be eligible for a surety there are clear rules that are 

comprehensible for everyone. The sureties come from the fund 

for Germany and have been arranged with the European Union 

Commission. These sureties can be granted if the necessary 

prerequisites have been fulfilled. 

How long can you survive like that? 

We scheduled the sureties in such a way that we can overcome 

the current difficulties in a reasonable manner. We intend to 

achieve a balanced operating result this year. However, that is 

rather ambitious because in operational terms we are just recovering 

from a very high, double-digit loss. And then we naturally 

intend to achieve positive further growth next year. With 

the time limit at the end of 2011 the necessity for any further 

provision of security by means of a government guarantee will 

hopefully then be superfluous. 

Next year could become more difficult for you again because 

the feed-in tariffs in Germany continue to decline. Have you 

already expanded your sales in other countries? 

We are relatively strong in Italy. Italy contributes approximately 

a third of our sales. In terms of sales there we are already where 

we want to be as a group, with a much stronger position in the 

project business. In Germany it naturally helps that the local 

private customer market has seen such strong development. 

But we do not have very many large projects in Germany, so 

that the cuts in German subsidies for outdoor plants do not affect 

us as much. 

We are not counting on Spain for the time being; France though 

is developing quite well and our business in the USA is slowly 

gaining momentum. There we have the first larger projects and 

are about to close a deal for the one or the other. For years we 

did not make it to the short list in the bidding process when it 

came to business in the U.S. – but today that is different. Thus 

we see that even a decline in our business in Germany can be 



For this power station nestled in the Spanish landscape of Moclinejo, Solon 

bored micro-piles to which the modules were fastened by steel cables. 

more than balanced out in the years to come by Italy, France 

and the USA. 

Is the project business more attractive than module sales? 

Yes, definitely. 

Always with the company’s own modules? 

Yes, that is our intention. If there is a need to expand, then it 

may well be that we will cooperate with a production service 

provider. But at the end of the day, we won’t simply purchase 

external modules because then we could no longer guarantee 

the quality. u 

Interview by Michael Fuhs 

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81

82 


Powerful picosound lasers are instrumental for getting thin film modules to the highest level of performance. 

Light efficiency 

Laser manufacturing: Lasers are vital tools for producing thin film modules. In particular, 

high-performance ultra short pulse lasers, which create pulses of a few picoseconds, 

allow for increased throughput and optimal processing results. Jan Wieduwilt of Trumpf 

GmbH explains their benefits. 

In the currently ongoing debate about 

future sources of energy, photovoltaics, 

as a renewable energy source, plays a key 

role. Technological progress is a particularly 

important pre-condition in obtaining 

the objective of grid parity, i.e. having 

electricity from photovoltaic sources 

cost as little as electricity from conventional 

sources. 

Crystalline solar cells currently dominate 

the photovoltaics market at an efficiency 

rate of up to 20 percent. Lasers are 

currently used in such modules in production 

to cut the wafers and for laser 

edge isolation. 

In laser edge isolation, the continuous 

doping on the edge of the cell is severed to 

prevent power loss from short circuits between 

the front and back sides. More and 

more lasers are being used in the doping 

processes, where the laser creates a 

higher local doping profile on the solar 

cell, to improve charge carriers mobility, 

particularly for the contact fingers. Over 

the last few years, thin film modules have 

been growing in significance. Experts expect 

them to gain a market share of approximately 

20 percent over the medium 

term. 

Thin film solar cells use a layer only 

a few micrometers thick, so that large 

amounts of material can be saved in production. 

Lasers play a decisive role in the 

production of thin film solar cells, in that 

they structure and connect the cells to 

the solar module; they ablate the module 


Photos: TRUMPF GmbH

Graphic: Solarpraxis AG/Harald Schütt 

Image of laser structuring for module switching (a-Si or CdTe) 

Back contact 

Absorber 

(Semiconductor) 

Front Contact 

(TCO) 

Glass 

Source: TRUMPF GmbH 

Patterning 1 (P1): 

Separation of the front contact (TCO) 

using glass 


Ablation of the semiconductor 

through glass + TCO for the series 

switching of cells 


Separation of the back contact and 

the semi-conductor through 

glass + TCO 

The levels are consecutively “etched” with a laser through glass. This electrically isolates them from each 

other and creates serial connection. 

and so ensure that the solar module has 

the required insulation strength. 

Established patterning 

In the production of solar modules from 

thin film silicone or cadmium telluride, 

conductive and photoactive films 

are deposited on large substrate areas 

such as glass. After every deposition, 

the laser subdivides the surface in such 

a way that the cells created are automatically 

switched in series by the process sequence. 

It is thus possible to allow the cell 

and module current to be set depending 

on the cell width. The accurate, selective 

and contact-free laser processing can be 

reliably integrated into production lines. 

So-called patterning (see graphic above) 

is a stringing together of ablations from 

individual light pulses, which create 

spot sizes between 30 to 80 micrometers, 

whereby in Patterning 1 the glass is ablated 

using pulse lengths of a few nanoseconds 

(10 to 80 ns). 

The Transparent Conductive Oxide 

(TCO), out of zinc dioxide or tin dioxide, 

Ablation is an established laser process. 


TabLE 1: abLaTion ThrEshoLds of 

diffErEnT maTEriaLs 

Material TCO Si CdTe 

IR 

(1064 nm) 

Green 

(532 nm) 

4 – 7 J/cm 2 6.8 J/cm 2 1.05 J/cm 2 

6 – 10 J/cm 2 1.6 J/cm 2 0.07 J/cm 2 

Source: Trumpf GmbH + Co. KG 

is usually processed using lasers with infrared 

wavelengths and a comparatively 

high pulse-to-pulse overlap. At typical 

feed rates, repetition rates of over 100 kilohertz 

are the result. A high overlap assures 

for a thorough cleaning of the incision. 

Depending on the absorption coefficient 

of the material, a suitable wave 

length is chosen for a specific process 

window. The threshold of silicon for green 

laser light is much lower than the threshold 

of TCO. Therefore green laser light 

can pass the TCO layer without harming 

it, when ablating the absorber layer 

(compare Tab. 1). The ablation mechanism 

used is the same for Patterning 2 

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84 


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Fractures and delamination made visible by a nanosecond laser at the edge 

of a molybendum layer. 

and Patterning 3. Sensitivity regarding the process window is 

presented in Patterning 2 and 3 in comparison to Patterning 1. 

Limitations are created for the pulse overlap from the fracture 

mechanics of the ablation. An overlap that prevents delamination 

of the semi-conductor layer on the interface where individual 

light pulses are used for ablations can be selected, having a 

range of 25 to 35 percent. At typical feed rates, a repetition rate 

Lasers are vital in the making of thin film solar cells. 

of 35 to 45 kilohertz will result. The moderate ablation threshold 

of about two joules per centimeter squared allows spot diameters 

of 40 micrometers at pulse energy of roughly 25 microjoules 

and low average power. As the average power of such 

a green laser is a few watts, beam splitting and parallel processing 

are possible. 

Ideal for Patterning 1, 2 and 3 patterning are small and compact 

diode-pumped solid-state lasers for micro processing with 

wavelength of 1064 and 532 nanometers and a high pulse-topulse 

stability. The pulse duration of these lasers should be between 

eight and 40 nanoseconds with repetition rates of one 

to 100 kilohertz. 

ablation protection 

In order to protect solar modules from corrosion and longterm 

short circuits, the layering system on the edge shall be 

placed at a width of roughly one centimeter and subsequently 

encapsulates the entire module. Sandblasting is currently used 

to ablate the layers. Even though sandblasting has low investment 

costs, the procedure creates high follow-up costs resulting 

from wear and the removal of the sand as well as the measures 

which are required to protect the modules from dust contamination. 

Production requires clean and affordable solutions, 

such as those offered by the use of lasers. The excellent process 

characteristics in patterning can be transferred to complete 

ablation with an increase in average power. An ablation rate 

of approximately 50 square centimeters per second and higher 

allows for cycle times of 30 seconds in the production of standard-sized 

modules. 

Even the complete ablation of all layers can be done with a 

single pulse ablation and thus the ablation rate can increase 

relative to the average power. Lasers with high average power 

and pulse energy can process any selected forms within the 

line cycle time. Best suited are lasers which use a fiber-guided 

system with square or rectangular profiles. The fiber homogenizes 

the laser beam width on the part and thus allows for uniform 

ablation. The stringing together of square pulses allows 

for an increase in ablation rates of more than 50 percent com- 


pared to standard fibers, meaning the overlap can be reduced 

in a manner safer for the process. The large work interval can 

be used to reduce unproductive periods with the use of a scanner. 

The lasers should further offer options to minimize the 

unproductive times for the beam guidance such as time sharing. 

A laser can supply several work stations at once, meaning 

the loading and unloading periods do not reduce the total productivity 

for the laser. 

future laser processes 

The production of CI(G)S modules and cells presents massive 

challenges to laser processes because of the materials used. If 

the carrier substrate is glass, the work material molybdenum 

is processed in the initial patterning phase. Molybdenum has a 

high boiling point, good heat conductivity and high heat capacity, 

which leads to cracks and delamination when heat is introduced 

in the molybdenum layer. Since these weak points cannot 

be avoided in processing with nanosecond laser pulses, the 

use of these lasers is associated with a loss in quality. The photoactive 

material also reacts sensitively to the introduction of 

high levels of heat. Selenium has a lower boiling point than the 

other metals contained in photoactive material such as copper, 

indium, and gallium; also, it escapes at low temperatures from 

the bonds. The heat entry through “long” laser pulses can thus 

lead to short circuits on the edge areas, as the semiconductor 

without selenium is transformed into an alloy. 

Picosecond lasers offer a solution. The material is ablated with 

ultra short pulses without significant process edge zone heating. 

Here high performance picosecond lasers with wave lengths of 

1030, 515 and 343 nanometers for the structuring of current thin 

film modules based on CI(G)S technologies are available. It is 

assumed ultra short laser pulses will replace mechanical processes 

due to quality and productivity advantages. 

Laser prospects 

Additional future laser applications include the selective ablation 

of passivated layers on crystalline solar cells. Lasers with 

ultra short pulses and high pulse energy are particularly wellsuited 

because of their excellent beam quality. Only disk laser 

technologies fulfill such criteria right now. Due to the simple 

scalability of the laser output, a higher production throughput 

can be achieved, and the high beam quality in the ultra short 

pulses significantly improves solar cell efficiency. 

Laser technology has made inroads in photovoltaic module 

production and has used its selective contact-free procedures 

to vanquish other processes. The cost pressures associated with 

the production of solar modules will drive the spread of highperformance 

lasers with high average power for large-scale 

processes. In addition, new laser technologies with ultra short 

pulses will allow for new production techniques. In any case 

the cost per watt of solar cell power will shrink significantly in 

the future thanks to the laser. u 

ThE auThor 

Jan Wieduwilt studied laser- and optotechnology in Jena 

before joining TRUMPF Laser in 2010. He now works in Industry 

Management (PV) of Trumpf’s laser technology division in 

Ditzingen. 


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86 


Using Solar Flexrack’s pop-up system, Borrego was able to install 119 kilowatts-peak on a fire service and police 

site in California in a single week. 

Faster, larger, easier 

Ground-mounted installations: Time is money, so connecting up megawatt parks to 

the grid has to become faster. Smart ways to secure modules help accelerate the process. 

GPS-controlled ramming robots and giant modules are further aids to speed up future 

ground-mounted installations. 

In Germany, 2009 was a boom year for 

ground-mounted solar installations. For 

the moment, it’s all over, as photovoltaic 

arrays set up on former farmland after 

July 2010 won’t be paid to supply electricity 

to the grid. So project developers 

in Germany are working on their international 

business. Sven Künzel, Senior 

Sales Manager for Schletter USA, expects 

a peak PV capacity of 800 to 1,000 megawatts 

to be newly installed in the U.S. 

this year with around a third of it on the 

ground – on field, landfill and brownfield 

sites. But German installers are increasingly 

being dispatched to Eastern Europe, 

too, like those from Sunselex of Munich, 

who were for the first time this summer 

carrying out installations in Bulgaria. 

The country is hilly, with sunburned 

meadows stretching as far as the eye can 

see. Solar power is now being produced 

on a large scale in the sparsely populated 

hinterland of the small Bulgarian town 

Drachevo, southeast of Burgas on the 

Black Sea coast. Here, Sunselex set up a 

solar farm with a 3.55 megawatt-peak capacity. 

Between 9 and 18 fitters took two 

months to install about 15,500 modules. 

Sunselex itself didn’t choose the installation 

system for securing those modules 

as the firm works on behalf of Juwi, Gehrlicher, 

Energiequelle and other project 

developers and uses the components they 

provide. This is true of all Sunselex’s projects, 

meaning Technical Manager Christian 

Welzel and his colleagues know virtually 

every installation system on the 

market. Sunselex has already installed a 

hefty 400 megawatts-peak. 

Welzel explains that the key factor 

when evaluating an installation system is 

how closely it can be tailored to the lay of 

the land; an inflexible system is difficult 

to align. Minor tilting or distortion of the 

pile-driven posts has to be compensated 


Photo: Borrego Solar Systems, Inc.

for, so it’s important for the links at the 

foot and head of the foundation to be adjustable. 

Preassembly desirable 

“If you’ve ever assembled kit furniture, 

you’ll know how annoying it is to have 

to tighten all 78 screws individually,” 

says Welzel. Fiddly details in installation 

racks for solar farms can also sometimes 

drive fitters to despair. Many installation 

system makers are therefore trying 

to simplify their securing systems. Fewer 

tools on site, small parts preassembled to 

carrier profiles, and new ways of securing 

modules are designed to ease the work fitters 

do while simultaneously shortening 

construction time. The market survey on 

the following pages shows that some systems 

can already be assembled using only 

two tools. Welzel’s on-site experience inspires 

him to want even more: “Ideally, 

you could do everything with one tool.” 

As can be seen from our overview, 

modules in most installation systems 

are secured with clamps. Many manufacturers 

have developed new hammerhead 

bolts that only need to be tightened 

from above, making it faster and easier 

to secure small metal parts. Wedge nuts 

are pre-tensioned by a spring and pressed 

into the correct position, facilitating the 

work and saving time. 

Simply inserted 

Sunselex’s fitters did entirely without 

module clamps in Bulgaria as they were 

testing Schletter’s new FS-IN insertion 

Zeta In-roof 

Mounting systems 

for solar installations 

On-roof 

In-roof 

Flat roof 

Open terrain 


K2 has developed special ground anchors that hold a supporting framework securely on landfill sites, 

even where depth is shallow. 

system. The framed modules are fitted 

upright in two rows on a total of just three 

rails. The fitter simply inserts the module 

into the upper rail and draws it into the 

groove in the lower rail. A rubber strip 

is then pushed in at the top for theft prevention, 

and the rows are fixed at the ends 

with caps. That’s it. No need to position 

small parts, and there are 33,700 screws 

fewer to tighten. “Assembly goes very 

well, and the modules don’t get snagged 

while being inserted,” says Welzel happily. 

With an insertion system, the module 

frames take over the load-bearing 

function of the diagonal reinforcement. 

There’s also a material saving, for three 

rails instead of four use less metal, while 

clamps are completely eliminated. 

Schletter developed FS-IN for a major 

customer eighteen months ago and presented 

it to the public at Intersolar this 

year. The rack maker is actually a specialist 

in clamping technology and still 

doesn’t quite believe in the breakthrough 

success of its new system. Hans Urban, 

head of Schletter’s solar business in Germany, 

says that not all module frames are 

so stably designed and constructed that 

they can take tension throughout their 

length and simultaneously bear 240 kilograms 

of snow. In the end, he says, everything 

depends on acceptance by the 

module makers, and he still hasn’t had 

much of a response. “Of the 350 letters 

I’ve written to module makers asking for 

approval, only 18 have been answered.” 

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Sigma Open terrain 

Mounting Systems GmbH • Tel. +49 (0)33708 529-0 • info@mounting-systems.de • www.mounting-systems.de DIN-certified: ISO 9001 

Photo: K2 Systems GmbH

88 


The experience of Freiburg-based Creotecc 

has been very different. This company, 

which along with SolarMarkt was 

bought by Würth Solar in July, sells almost 

90 percent of its systems with insertion 

profiles. “Anyone who works with an 

insertion system just once will stick with 

it,” says Behzad Anisi, working in wholesale 

at the firm, reporting his experience. 

Creotecc has received approvals for its 

Alutec product from all the big module 

makers. Each module can be inserted in 

the horizontal format, because the quarter 

points to which standard modules are 

to be fastened are then also covered. Even 

Solarswiss approves its modules for upright 

installation with Alutec, although 

the module frame is very narrow at 35 

millimeters. Anisi only foresees problems 

with very heavy snow loads. “We’ve 

turned down enquiries from deepest Bavaria, 

and an insertion system shouldn’t 

be used on Zugspitze mountain, which 

goes up to 3,000 meters.” 

Welzel considers insertion systems very 

interesting, as long as they’ve been well 

thought out. “Dimensional stability in 

the rails is important; otherwise, they’ll 

begin to warp as soon as the weight of 

a module bears on them,” he points out. 

He says this kind of deformation happens 

in inferior systems, especially when 

installed on hillside locations, because 

the spars and purlins of module pedestals 

bend under the influence of gravity. 

That’s one more thing to watch out for 

when choosing an installation system. 

Pop-up system 

The benefits of preassembled installation 

systems are being discovered in the U.S., 

too. Borrego, one of the big U.S. project 

developers with branches in Boston, 

Berkeley and San Diego, is now putting 

its trust in the pop-up system by Solar 

FlexRack. Here, the transverse and longitudinal 

carriers of a module pedestal 

are already screwed together and folded 

up lengthways for transportation. When 

a crane lifts the pedestal by its topmost 

longitudinal carrier, the pedestal unfolds 

and the transverse carriers lock at 

a 90-degree angle. 

Using this technology, Borrego was 

able to install 119 kilowatts-peak on the 

fire service and police site in Mill Valley 

in northern California in a single October 

week. “With any other system, we’d 

have needed three or four weeks,” says 

Philip Hall, Borrego’s Director of Marketing. 

Loren O’Hara, Borrego Solar 

Site Superintendent, is also enthusiastic: 

“Solar FlexRack is the best racking system 

I’ve worked with in my ten years of 

installing solar PV. Out of the box, it pops 

open preassembled, and it cut down my 

installation time, saving our client time 

and money.” The framed modules are 

held in rails on their long sides. They were 

pushed upright into the rails. The stopbolts 

for the first row were already preinstalled. 

Borrego’s installers tightened 

down the bolts to secure the second row 

after the first row had been slid in. 

Hybrid assembly 

Anyone who doesn’t believe in a pure insertion 

system but still needs faster installation 

can buy a hybrid installation 

system from Ideematec of southern Bavaria. 

Its design engineers combine the 

benefits of the insertion technology with 

those of module clamps in the new Fixed 

Tilt system. An installer can align the 

modules very quickly and easily with 

the insertion rails in the middle of the 

two-row system. “Additional securing 

A new way to secure modules to a proven rack technology: Sunselex is installing a 3.55 megawatts peak array in Drachevo, Bulgaria, using Schletter’s new 

FS-IN insertion system. 44 modules are installed upright in two rows on each pedestal. 


Photo: Sunselex GmbH

Photo: Ideematec Deutschland GmbH 

Inserting and clamping combined: the Ideematec hybrid system found a positive response at Intersolar. 

with two clamps makes this design enormously 

stiff,” says Johann Kufner, a product 

developer at Ideematec. It also halves 

the number of clamps. 

And what do module makers say? Before 

developing this fastening technique, 

Ideematec sent an enquiry to its five partners. 

“They all approved our system for 

their modules,” says Kufner. Kufner and 

his colleagues presented the system for 

the first time at Intersolar. Systems for installing 

six megawatts-peak were ordered 

immediately, and delivery began in mid- 

August, meeting Ideematec’s target for 

the first production run. 

The Bavarian firm offers another easyinstallation 

feature that will also please 

Sunselex’s Welzel. The complete installation 

system connects up with just one 

kind of screw, which means a fitter need 

only take one tool to the construction site. 

No wedge nuts are required for securing 

to the aluminum rails, for the screws go 

directly into the clamping channel. Ideematec 

developed this principle in cooperation 

with the Munich University of 

Applied Sciences and has put it through 

lengthy tests in roof-mounted arrays. It’s 

now available for ground-mounted installations 

for the first time. 

Backrails and robots 

Ever more thin film modules are being 

ground-mounted, even though more 

space is required, because cost per kilowatt-peak 

is lower. Formats are becoming 

ever larger at the same time, further saving 

expensive assembly time. The backrail 

technology is being increasingly used 

to secure “quarter size” glass modules – 

measuring around one and a half square 

meters – to installation racks. Narrow 

metal profiles are glued to the back of the 

modules, which are then simply hooked 

into the carrier rails on site. Our market 

overview on the next pages shows that 


most manufacturers now offer this fastening 

technique. 

Gehrlicher goes a step further. Full 

size modules are also to be installed with 

the Gehrtec backrail. Two rails that engage 

into the substructure are glued to 

the back of each 5.7 square meter glassglass 

module. The module can then bear 

snow loads of up to 240 kilograms. Modules 

by Applied Materials the size of a garage 

door are to be ground-mounted by 

a caterpillar vehicle with a robot arm. A 

prototype robot is already under test. 

Robots will also help speed up the implementation 

of ground-mounted solar 

farms. Faster ramming while simultaneously 

protecting the site is an aim for 

Schletter, using GPS-controlled ramming 

robots. With the previously customary 

installation technique, Schletter rams 

100 to 150 foundations per day, depending 

on soil composition. The GPS technique 

means the ramming points no longer 

need to be surveyed and configured, 

for the ramming rig finds the ramming 

points by itself using GPS and drives in 

the rammed foundations to the desired 

depth. Schletter is already achieving an 

output of 300 to 400 rammed foundations 

daily with a prototype. Hans Urban 

estimates it could go up to 600. A vehicle 

previously had to traverse a site several 

times. The pile-driven posts had first to 

be distributed and were set up and driven 

in later. The GPS-controlled equipment 

always carries a stock of posts on board 

and only needs to cover the field once, 

thus sparing both site and labor. 

There’s a lot going on in the groundmounted 

segment. Only time will show 

whether robot technology will prove to 

be a hit on-site. And Behzad Anisi of Creotecc 

spells out what counts in the end: 

“Fitters want to have a reliable and complete 

supply, whether of clamps or insertion 

profiles.” u Anja Riedel 

Advertisement 


pv-mounting systems 

SOLID SOLUTIONS 

PLANNING | PRODUCTION | INSTALLATION 

Innovative 

mounting systems 

for PV-power plants 

– suitable for all modules 

– short installation times 

– no sealing of the ground 

– single- and multi-row assembly 

– statically checked 

– economically 

worldwide over 

300 MWp 

produced and 

mounted 

HABDANK PV-Montagesysteme 

D-73037 Göppingen 

Phone: +49 (0) 7161 / 97 817 - 200 

info@habdank-pv.com - www.habdank-pv.com 

89

90 

Market overview installation systems – ground mounted 

Manufacturer 

Country of origin 

Product name 

Market launch 

Ramming foundation 

Earth anchor 

Foundation Profile connection 

with 

Strip foundation 

Various concrete 

foundations 

Altec D Alfrei 2000 x x x x Double row supports, diagonal brace x x 

Clenergy AU Solar Terrace I 2009 x x x Double row supports, cross-bonded, 

diagonal brace 

x x 

AU Solar Terrace II 2010 x Single row supports, cross-bonded, 


x x 

Creotecc D Creoterra 2007 x x x x Single and double row supports, 

cross-bonded, diagonal brace 

x x x x 

Donauer D Intersol 2006 x x x Double row supports, two diagonal braces, 

foldable 

x 

ecoJoule I Easy Picco - 

Open Field 

2009 x Single and double row supports x 

Galaxy D Galaxy Vario II 2008 x x x x Double row supports, different module sizes x x 

Energy 

can be mounted 

Gehrlicher D gehrtec Base-FS 2007 x x Four or five row module configuration, 

for First Solar modules 

x 

D gehrtec Base-Frame 2010 x x For module heights 35 to 50 mm, 

three-rows horizontal mounting 

x 

D gehrtec Base-Backrail 2009 x x Profile system for big laminates x 

Goldbeck D Sunovation 2006 x x Double row supports, diagonal brace, 

x x 

Solar 

brackets, mounting rails, cross-bonded 

Green D GF-FL 2008 x Piled vertical rod, head component with 

x 

Factory 

cross bolt, support braces, horizontal carrier 

rails and double rows 

Habdank D FA05/FA06 2004 x Single row supports x x 

Hilti LI System MSP 

Solarpark 

2009 x x x x Double row supports, cross-bonded x 

Ideematec D FixedTilt 2010 x x Single row supports, hybrid attachment system 

for insertion and screw profiles 

x x 

Iron Ridge USA SGA 2010 x x Schedule 40 pipe; XRS rail system x 

K2 Systems D Freiland V 2009 x Three module rows, thin film up to five rows, 

optimised module support rails, V- brace 

x x 

D Freiland N 2006 x x x Double to three module rows, thin film 

up to five rows, optimised module support rails, 

cross-brace 

x x 

Krinner D Flex III - 3 H (50) 2009 x Double row supports, insertion system x x x 

D Flex III-4 SK 8 / SM 8 2009 x Double row supports x x x 

D Flex III - 2 P FS 6 2010 x Double row supports x x x 

Mage Solar D Mage Safetec 2010 x x x x x Single and double row supports, 


x x x 

Mecasolar E MS-1C Fix, MS-1T Fix 2009 x x Single row module arrangement, single row 

supports, additional front leverage 

E MS -2C Fix, MS-2 T Fix 2009 x x Double row module arrangement, single row 

supports, additional front leverage 

E MS-3C Fix, MS-3 T Fix 2009 x x Three-row module arrangement, 

single row supports with transverse brace, 

additional front leverage 

Mounting D Omega 2005 x x x x Single frame, module fastening from 

x x 

Systems 

under possible 

D Sigma 2007 x x x x x Single or multiple row piling system x x 

MP-Tec D Quick-Line 2006 x x x x Module frame variable, multiple rows, 


x x x x 

Powerway CN SS System 2009 x x x x One row of strut, cross,diagonal bars x x 

Gabions 

Others 

System description 

Screws 

Clamps 

Nuts 


Others

Framed 

Module design Module 

arrangement 

Frameless thin-film 

Frameless crystalline 

Frameless with back rail 

Portrait 

Landscape 


Module angle Type of panel attachment Certificates 

Minimum 

Maximum 

Screws 

Clamps 

Click-on connection 

Insertion profile 

Others 

Max. wind load zone 

Max. snow load zone 

At altitude up to 

(m above sea level) 

Assembly time 

in h/m²/person 

Number of tools needed 

Installed capacity (MW) 

TÜV 


x x x x x 10 40 x x 4 3 700 4 x 10 10 

x x x x x 10 45 x 4 3 700 0.4 3 5 x 10 

x x x x x 10 45 x 4 3 700 0.3 3 1 x 10 

x x x x x x 10 40 x 4 3 900 2 20 x 5 28 

x x x x x 10 40 x 4 3 3 200 x 12 14 

x x x x x x 10 40 x x x 1 7 x 

x x x 10 70 x x 4 3 0.5 5 5-10 

x x 25 25 x x 3 3 395 0.25 3 100 10 14 

x x 25 25 x x 3 3 415 0.25 3 5 10 14 

x x 25 25 x 3 3 395 0.15 2 7 10 14 

x x x 10 30 x 4 3 600 0.3 18 20 

x x x x 10 40 x x 4 3 2 x 2 

x x x x 15 35 x 4 3 1,000 >400 5 

x x x x 10 40 x x 5 25 

x x 20 30 x x x 4 3 1 10 15 30 

x x x 0 45 x x 4 3 4 10 10 20 

x x x x x x 15 30 x x 4 3 1,000 11 x x x 12 

x x x x x x 15 30 x x 4 3 1,000 53 x x x 12 

x x 20 30 x 4 3 x 5 14-30 

x x x x x x 20 30 x 4 3 x 5 14-30 

x x x x x x 20 30 x 4 3 x 5 14-30 

x x x x x x 10 40 x 4 3 700 0.5 3 0 x 10 14 

x x 30 fix 1 

x x 30 fix 1 10 7 for 2 MW 

180 

x x 30 fix 1 10 7 for 2 MW 

RAL 

VDE 

Others 

Product warranty 

(years) 

Delivery time (days) 

10 7 for 2 MW 

x x x x x x x 110 10 10 

x x x x x x x 200 10 20 

x x x x x x 0 45 x x 4 3 700 0.25 3 20 x 10 7 

x x x x 5 45 x x 4 3 0.8 3 4.6 x 15 7 

91

92 

Market overview installation systems – ground mounted 

Manufacturer 

Country of origin 

Product name 

Market launch 

Ramming foundation 

Earth anchor 

Foundation Profile connection 

with 

Strip foundation 

Various concrete 

foundations 

Powerway CN DS System 2009 x x x x Two rows of struts, cross, diagonal bars x x 

CN QK Stystem 2009 x x x x Two rows of struts, cross, diagonal bars x x 

CN Easy-in System 2009 x x x x Two rows of struts, cross, diagonal bars x x 

RegTec D ReMax 2007 x x x x Single and double row supports, 


x x x x 

Schletter D PVKombi 2005 x x Single and double row supports, 

rows interconnected 

x x x x 

D PVMax2 2003 x x With concrete strip base, e.g. for landfills x x x x 

D PVMax3 2009 x With concrete strip base, e.g. for landfills x x x 

D System FS Vario 2006 x Adjustable module inclination x x x 

D System FS-H 2005 x Piling foundation x x x 

D System FS-H-KP 2005 x Piling foundation x x x 

D System FS-V 2005 x Piling foundation x x x 

D System FS OptiBond 2009 x Piling foundation x x x 

D System FS-IN 2010 x Piling foundation x x x 

Schüco D MSE 100 Freiland 2009 x x Piling foundation x x 

D MSE 210 Freiland 

Rammpfosten 

2009 x x Piling foundation x x 

D MSE 210 

2007 x x x Established on foundation, base plates, 

x x x 

Freilandgestell 

temporary anchorages like pivoting anchors 

SE- 

D SE-Edel 1997 x x x x x Double row supports, cross-bonded, 

x x 

Consulting 


SEN D SOL-50 Roof Mount- 2006 x x Galvanised steel assembly rack with 

x 

ing System 

aluminum insertion system 

Solarpower D Solarpower 

Festaufständerung 

2007 x x x x U-profile and round pipes with bracing x x 

Solarworld D Sunfix Freifeld 2005 x x x x Double row module arrangement x x 

Soltech D PV TEC 2005 

2005 x x x Double row module arrangement, 

x x x x 

Freifläche 

cross-bonded, diagonal brace, also for carports 

D PV TEC 2005 L 

2007 x x x Single row module arrangement, 

x x x x 

Freifläche 

also for carports 

Sunlink USA GMS 2009 x x x x Available in low profile single portrait design for small 

projects and utility-scale triple landscape design 

x 

Sunmodo USA Grount Mount System 2009 x x Two rows of pipes, cross, diagonal tubes x x x 

Terrafix D Terrafix Vario Gestell 2008 x x x Area following, feet continuously 

adjustable in height, cross-wind bracing, 

sequential row formation possible 

x 

Unistrut USA/ Ground Mount - Basic 2010 x x x x x x Two rows of ground posts, stuts, 

x x x x 

Energy 

Solutions 

CAN Posts 

cross bracing, any orientation 

USA/ Ground Mount - 2010 x x x x x x Ballasted ground system, concrete base, 

x x x x 

CAN Ballast 

stut construction 

USA/ Single Row Post 2010 x x x x x x Single ground post row, 

x x x x 

CAN 

common roll formed shapes mounting 

USA/ Single Pole Mount 2010 x x x x x x Single post for smaller footprint, 

x x x x 

CAN 

up to six panels each post 

Wagener & D Wasi Freiland 2009 x x x x System adjustment demand 

x x x 

Simon WASI 

met by flexible components 

Wagner & Co D TricFL 2009 x x x x Single and double row supports, 


x 

This market overview is based on information from manufacturers about their products. If you have any questions, we recommend that you contact the manufacturer directly. 

Subscribers can download a PDF including all data at www.pv-magazine.com. All information subject to change. 

Gabions 

Others 

System description 

Screws 

Clamps 

Nuts 


Others

Framed 

Module design Module 

arrangement 

Frameless thin-film 

Frameless crystalline 

Frameless with back rail 

Portrait 

Landscape 


Module angle Type of panel attachment Certificates 

Minimum 

Maximum 

Screws 

Clamps 

Click-on connection 

Insertion profile 

Others 

Max. wind load zone 

Max. snow load zone 

At altitude up to 

(m above sea level) 

Assembly time 

in h/m²/person 

Number of tools needed 

Installed capacity (MW) 

TÜV 


x x x x 5 45 x x 4 3 0.5 3 22 x 15 7 

x x x x x x 5 45 x x 1 1 0.6 2 1.6 x 15 7 

x x x x 5 45 x 1 1 1 2 1 x 15 7 

x x x x x x x 4 3 x 10 

x x x x x 20 45 x 4 3 2 x x x x 10 > 30 

x x x x x 20 45 x 4 3 8 x x x x 10 10 

x x x x x 20 45 x 4 3 8 x x x x 10 10 

x x 10 60 x 4 3 29 x x x x 10 > 30 

x x x x x 4 3 56 x x x x 10 > 30 

x x x x x x 4 3 250 x x x x 10 > 30 

x x x x x 4 3 142 x x x x 10 > 30 

x x x x x 4 3 1.5 x x x x 10 > 30 

x x x x 4 3 0.2 x x x x 10 > 30 

x x 10 40 x 4 0.1 x 10 5 

x x x x 10 40 x 4 0.1 x 10 5 

x x x x x 0 40 x 3 1 x 10 5 

x x x x x x x 1 2 2 20 

x x x 10 35 x 4 3 300 x 5 45 

x x x x x x 10 35 x x x x 4 3 1,000 100 x 20 28 

x x 20 40 x x 4 2 700 70 2 28 

x x x x x x 10 40 x 3 3 400 2 x 10 14 

x x x x 10 40 x 3 3 400 2 x 10 14 

x x x x x 15 40 x x 4 3 0.07 3 x 

x x x x x 10 40 x x 4 3 700 0.5 3 2 x 10 14 

x x x x x x 10 40 x x x x 4 3 1,000 0.3 272 ≤ 20 14 

x x x x x x 0 40 x x 4 3 2,500 10 

x x x x x x 0 40 x x 4 3 2,500 10 

x x x x x x 0 40 x x 4 3 2,500 10 

x x x x x x 0 40 x x 4 3 2,500 10 

x x x x x 1 40 x x x 4 3 1,000 53 10 

x x 25 35 x 4 3 0.15 3 12 x x 12 30 

RAL 

VDE 

Others 

Product warranty 

(years) 

Wind load zones (Velocity pressure): 1 Up to 3,200 N/m² 2 Up to 3,900 N/m² 3 Up to 4,700 N/m² 4 Up to 5,600 N/m² 

Delivery time (days) 

93

Applications & Installations | Product News | Accessories | Production Technology 

Accessories/Fronius 

For the French and British 

Fronius has developed the Fronius Control 

250/25 DCD DF (DC disconnect 

double fuse) especially for the French 

and British markets, as it complies with 

the local statutory regulations and meets 

all regional requirements. It matches the 

specifications of the existing Fronius 

String Control 250/25. However, it also includes 

additional safety precautions such 

as an all-pole fuse protection of strings 

on the DC side that protects against all 

possible faults. There is an integrated ex- 

Production technology/Saint-Gobain Solar 

Bonding technology 

Saint-Gobain Solar is presenting its new 

SolarBond Frame Sealant. The company’s 

new sealant is pumpable and offers an au- 

Photo: Saint-Gobain Solar 

ternal DC disconnector that allows the 

PV generator to be safely isolated from 

the inverter, enabling maintenance work 

to be performed on a safe and de-energized 

system. An optional external Type 

1 (direct lightning protection) or Type 2 

(indirect lightning protection) overvoltage 

protection component, designed for 

snap-on rail mounting, can also be fitted 

as an additional safety feature. The 

Fronius String Control 250/50 DCD DF 

monitors strings continuously, and pro- 

tomated dispensing solution for framing 

modules. According to the company, this 

automated process helps enhance oper- 

vides all-pole fuse protection for up to 25 

strings. It is ideally suited for use alongside 

the Fronius CL central inverters. 

www.fronius.com 

CORRECTION IN PV MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 2010: PAGE 50, BANKABILITY IS A LONG WAY OFF 

ational safety while also achieving increased 

capacity and, ultimately, cost savings. 

The SolarBond sealant consists of a 

foamable, reactive thermoplastic compound, 

presenting several benefits for 

manufacturers over the traditional silicone 

methods used to seal photovoltaic 

modules. For example, with traditional 

methods, excess silicone overflows onto 

the module’s surface after the insertion 

of the photovoltaic laminate into the 

frame. According to Saint-Gobain, the 

foaming SolarBond sealant allows an 

optimum cavity fill to be achieved without 

any overflow, reducing cleaning time 

and material waste. Being applied warm, 

the new sealant technology achieves high 

bonding strength immediately after contact 

with the glass, backsheet and frame. 

This eliminates the setting time needed 

for silicone products to cure, increasing 

productivity and shortening production 

cycles. The unique thermosetting formulation 

then cures, providing a strong, 

long-term, weather-resistant bond and 

assuring the final product’s durability. 

www.saint-gobain-solar.com 

The Taiwanese thin film producer NexPower has stated that all of its modules are insured by Munich Re. This is applicable for all the modules 

that are sold under the regular sales conditions regardless of geography. As such, NexPower clarifies its statement in an interview 

with pv magazine, given by NexPower CEO Arthur Chou, in the September issue. The statement concerning “sales to China” was an 

exception to the insurance and applicable only to the 30-megawatt project in China. Apparently, a private firm that has working relations 

with NexPower carried out this project. 


Photo: Fronius

Modules/Sharp 

See through the modules 

The new thin film line from Sharp is developed 

for maximum energy output 

from building facades or under low light 

conditions, as the cells absorb a large 

proportion of the light spectrum. With 

its new triple junction cells, Sharp is the 

only manufacturer capable of producing 

thin film modules with an efficiency 

ratio of over ten percent. The modules are 

Modules/Innotech Solar 

Off-grid with attractive price-performance 

Innotech Solar’s new off-grid solar module 

has a favorable price-performance 

ratio. Its design features short cell strings 

that allow a large number of different 

solar cell types to be used, including half 

and third cells. Cell impurities are isolated 

and parts of non-functioning cells 

are removed using laser technology, so 

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Meet the players of one of the most prosperous solar markets of the future! 

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In conjunction with 

12–14 January 2011 • www.glasspex.com 

glasstec 

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International Exhibition for Glass Production, -Processing and -Products 

Trade fair and marketing platform for international companies and 

gateway to the Indian glass and solar market 

Powered by Supported by 

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR GLASS 

PRODUCTION • PROCESSING • PRODUCTS 

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR 

FOR SOLAR PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT 

Modules | Product News | Applications & Installations 

semi-transparent via the use of glass for 

the rear of the modules. The use of white 

glass, EVA plastic and weather protection 

film as well as a silver anodised aluminium 

frame enable long-term use. The 

modules available are the NA-F128 (G5), 

NA-F121 (G5) and the NA-F115 (G5). 

www.sharp.eu 

Special show on solar energy generation: “glass technology live goes India” 

Premiere of GLASSPEX INDIA in December 2009 with resounding success: 

Photo: Sharp 

that the remaining parts of the cells can 

operate at full capacity. These half and 

third cells are used in the ‘ITS Economy 

half cell’ and ‘ITS Economy third cell’ 

modules. According to Innotech, the 

modules are suited for users in Europe, 

Africa and South America. The standard 

modules have a 80 watts-peak capacity 

although clients can customize modules 

from as little as five watts-peak. 

www.innotechsolar.com 

139 exhibitors from more than 20 diff erent countries with 3,200 trade visitors 

Photo: Innotech Solar 

Advertisement

Advertisement 

Modules/United Solar 

Renovating roofs with solar shingles 

United Solar introduces its UL-approved 

residential solar module roof shingles 

that will be available on the U.S photovoltaic 

market. The Uni-Solar PowerShingle 

seeks to replace the need for heavy, 

bulky frames on rooftops. The modules 

are visually aesthetic, lightweight and 

flexible. The modules are designed to 

look like asphalt shingles. The PowerShingles 

contain glass free laminates that 

are lightweight and flexible. The mod- 

Modules/Solarfun 

The new star 

Solarfun has launched its new E-Star 

line of PV modules. The E-Star module 

line is designed for the needs of small 

commercial and residential applications. 

The modules are said to be lighter 

than traditional modules, weighing approximately 

three kilograms less. This 

enables easier installation according to 

Solarfun. Black and white frames are 

available allowing them to complement 

different designs. E-Star modules also 

feature improved low-light irradiance, 

ules are encapsulated in a UV-stabilized, 

weather-resistant polymer that can withstand 

Category 2 hurricane winds, hail 

and other impacts and at the same time, 

provide performance and protection for 

the inside of the house. The PowerShingle 

will hit the market as part of a residential 

lease pilot project in New Jersey 

in the U.S. 

www.uni-solar.com 

further increasing output power. They 

are designed and manufactured to deliver 

the same reliability as other Solarfun 

products, are certified to international 

ISO 9001 quality and ISO 

14001 environmental standards, and 

are backed by Solarfun‘s 25-year limited 

warranty. As with all of its products, 

Solarfun provides convenient local 

sales and technical support. 

www.solarfun-power.com 


Photo: Solarfun Photo: United Solar

Photo: Renusol 

Assembly/Renusol 

Water drainage 

The IntraSole CL is a system that has been 

designed by Renusol firstly to meet the 

requirements of the change in legislation 

Backend automation 

automated production equipment, 

making the most of your backend 

savvy producers´ answer to tackle the 

PV-module price crunch 

subscribe to our monthly 

e-newsletter @ 

www.gerold-mb.com/NL/ 

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Maschinenbau GEROLD GmbH & Co. KG · www.gerold-mb.de 

GEROLD-Anzeige PV Final 2010.indd 1 17.12.2009 15:24:36 


Assembly | Product News | Applications & Installations 

in France, which will be applicable from 

2011. Nevertheless, the IntraSole CL has 

grown from that idea into a mounting 

system that is aesthetic and is based on 

sophisticated side members for a simple 

snap-on module fastening function. The 

snap-on function is also in combination 

with continuously height adjustable rotation 

anchors. 

The height of the side members and thus 

of the modules can be varied with these 

anchors and adapted to the remaining 

roofing. In this way, even slight height 

differences between mounting rail and 

roof batten can be leveled out, creating 

a perfectly shingled module area. The 

side gutters and adapters convey the rain 

water from the roof tiles over the modules 

to the roofing below and/or directly 

into the gutter. 

In order to satisfy the higher aesthetic requirements, 

all visible system parts are 

made of black anodised aluminium. The 

fastening points in the upper clamp profiles 

are then equipped with black covering 

caps. IntraSole CL is designed as 

an extremely adaptable, flexible mounting 

system for all pitched roofs of 15 degrees 

to 70 degrees inclination. This way, 

all current frameless modules, whether 

thin film or polycrystalline, can be optimally 

integrated into the roof, independent 

of the remaining roofing (slate, shingle, 

or tile). 

www.renusol.com 

97

Photo: Exosun 

Applications & Installations | Product News | Assembly 

Advertisement 

Assembly/Exosun 

Following the sun 

Exotrack 1 axis is Exosun’s addition to 

the range of patented solar trackers. The 

INTERNATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGIES EXHIBITION 4 th edition 

The 100% renewable energies 

business event 

where the sun and wind are at home! 

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complimentary product to the existing 

line is designed to achieve the same ob- 

jectives as the Exotrack 2 axis; however 

it has been tweaked to drive costs down 

with the technology. The Exotracker 1 

axis is equipped with a backtracking system 

and shading avoidance. According to 

the company, it can produce an average 

of twenty percent more electricity than a 

fixed tilt system. 

The Exotrack 1 is made of recyclable, reusable 

components and is resistant to 

severe weather conditions like cyclonic 

winds up to 200 kilometers per hour in 

its security position. Designed to allow a 

dual use of the land, the system is compatible 

with vegetable farming, beekeeping 

or the breeding of certain animals. 

Due to its low height, the Exotrack 1 axis 

blends in with its environment and the 

daily movement of the panels respects 

the biotope by allowing light and rain to 

reach the ground. The land is in this way 

preserved. 

www.exosun.fr 

8 11 

DECEMBER 2010 

MONTPELLIER 

Exhibition Centre [France] 

450 exhibitors 

International conferences 

Business meetings 

Partnership section 

Job Forum 

Innovation Trophies 

Training aera 

Copyright : Istockphoto

Photo: Schletter Photo: PHAT Energy 

Assembly/PHAT Energy 

An all-purpose assembly 

PHAT Energy recently launched its PHAT ports, consisting of 

solar carports, solar patios and other forms of secondary solar 

structures. The two major features of the latest PHATport 350 

are ease of assembly, and the ability to have the structure reinstalled 

in another location when owners move. Like the rest of 

the PHATport line, it is built for the Sanyo translucent panel 

which allows 15 percent of light to penetrate, providing cool 

shade in full sun. The 350 will be capable of supporting a 2.5 kW 

solar array, which is more than what is needed to fuel an electric 

car. The PHATport 350 can be customized with lights, electrical 

outlets, EV Chargers, and column design options. 

www.phatenergy.com 

Assembly/Schletter 

Modular carport 

Schletter introduces the modular carport system. It is suitable 

for all kinds of modules and different kinds of foundations 

are available upon request. The Park@Sol is based on the 

consequent further development of the Schletter-FS open area 

mounting systems that have been used in Europa and North 

America on a scale of several hundred megawatts. The range 

goes from the fastening with bolted module clamps over a special 

time-saving klick-mounting technology up to the fastening 

of extensive modules by means of the OptiBond gluing technology, 

which reduces glass tensions to a minimum. 

www.schletter.eu 


Advertisement 

December 14–16, 2010 

India’s International Exhibition and 

Conference for the Solar Industry 

Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai 

200 Exhibitors 

12,000 sqm Exhibition Space 

6,000+ Visitors 

www.intersolar.in

Applications & Installations | Product News | Inverters 

Advertisement 

Inverters/Delta Energy Systems 

Reliable string inverters 

Delta Energy Systems introduces its new 

range of string inverters, the Solivia line, 

with Solivia 2.5, 3.3, 4.4 and 5.0. The Solivia 

string inverters have a wide temperature 

range, state-of-the-art user friendly 

display, a versatile positive or negative 

DC grounding and is suitable for outdoor 

and indoor usage. A wide voltage range 

as well as an operating temperature up to 

positive 70 degrees Celsius allows feeding 

power in the grid even in hot regions. 

The Solivia inverters make use of intelligent 

MPP tracking that, according to 

Delta, extracts maximum performance 

Inverters/Bentek 

Bi-Polar 

Bentek has designed the Bi-Polar Array combiner for Schneider 

Electric’s Xantrex GT-30 grid tie solar inverter. The Bentek Solar 

Bi-Polar Combiners are specifically designed for Bi-Polar Arrays 

up to 500VDC. Features of the Bi-Polar combiners include a finger-safe 

design and options for integrated disconnect and current 

sense. There are four to 12 input circuits and fuses, which 

can be supplied to specifications. There are protective covers on 

all live parts. The combiner is available in painted steel or stainless 

steel. All Bi-Polar combiners come standard with lockable 

NEMA 4X fiberglass enclosures and are UL1741 listed and CSA 

22.2 certified. 

www.bentek.de 

Gold Sponsor Supported by 

SEE Solar 

2010 

3rd December - Sofia, Bulgaria 

from solar cells under all operating conditions. 

The Solivia 2.5 Inverter can 

be mounted in protected outside areas 

Photo: Delta 

since the NEMA 4 /IP65 rated inverter 

and wiring compartment enclosures are 

dust-proof, completely safe to touch and 

protect the unit from moisture. The Solivia 

3.3 from Delta can be used for any 

installation size. It is particularly suitable 

for users looking for medium-sized solar 

installations with an input voltage ranging 

from 125 to 540 volts. The Solivia 5.0 

is particularly suitable for users who are 

looking for a solar inverter for mediumsized 

to large-scale solar installations. 

www.solar-inverter.com 

www.easteurolink.co.uk 

london@easteurolink.co.uk 

+44 (0) 207 275 8020 

Join us for SEE Solar 2010!! 

Promotional Discounts Available 

Key speakers from leading organisations: REC Solar, 

Enolia Energy, Suntech Power, AES Solar, UniCredit, 

a+f, SunSERVICE as well as representatives from 

government & acdemic bodies. 

Reserve your seat online now or contact our team 

+44 (0) 275 270 8020 delegate@easteurolink.co.uk 

Photo: Bentek 

www.easteurolink.co.uk

Foto: Daniel Schönen | Fotolia 

Accessories/Conergy 

Reading the sun with a vision 

Conergy is bringing to the market an 

expanded power consumption solution 

consisting of the Conergy VisionBox 

and Conergy SunReader Portal. Conergy 

VisionBox states on its touch screen 

how much energy the system is producing 

and at the same time states how 

much electricity is being consumed by 

the household. VisionBox is now supplemented 

by the SunReader internet portal 

which reads off all the relevant detailed 

information via a LAN connection and 

Services/Upsolar 

Warranty program 

Upsolar has announced its new warranty 

program for its photovoltaic modules 

which will be supported by Power- 

Guard’s PowerCLIP warranty program. 

The 25 year non-cancellable PowerCLIP 


1 st Inverter and PV System Technology Forum 

Lower cost per kWh via intelligent systems combination and high reliability 

Technology, R&D, Production, Markets & Finance 

24 – 25 January 2011 · Berlin, Germany 

Online registration: www.solarpraxis.de/conferences 

Information: Miriam Hegner, Solarpraxis AG, Tel.: +49 | (0)30 | 726 296-304, Fax: +49 | (0)30 | 726 296-309, conferences@solarpraxis.de 

Gold Sponsor 

Partners 

Accessories | Services | Product News | Applications & Installations 

makes it available in real time. The portal 

provides up to the minute analyses of 

all the data and prepares graphs, from the 

power volumes generated by the roof system 

through to direct consumption. Di- 

Photo: Conergy 

policy offers protection through Power- 

Guard’s network of insurance providers, 

all with A.M. Best financial ratings of 

excellent or better. PowerCLIP provides 

immediate coverage for issues such as 

serial defects and delaminating of modules. 

The policy also backs Upsolar’s new 

limited peak power warranty. This en- 

Media partners 

agrams show how much of this power is 

consumed directly by the customer and 

how much has been fed in on that specific 

day and since commissioning of the solar 

power system. In addition, customers can 

see the monetary amounts generated, the 

tariff and any electricity procurement 

costs as well as the CO2 savings. They 

can also call up the weather forecast for 

the next few days. 

www.conergy.de 

hanced warranty offers five-year product 

coverage for defects in materials and 

workmanship and features a power output 

guarantee with trigger points at years 

3, 7, 12, 16, 20 and 25 to provide warranty 

protection. 

www.upsolar.com 

Advertisement


Advertisement 

Stanford 

Using both heat and light 

Stanford engineers have discovered and proven that the simultaneous 

use of light and heat of solar radiation to generate electricity 

could double the efficiency of existing solar cell technology 

and, also, potentially make it cheap. The process has been 

dubbed as PETE or photon enhanced thermionic emission. This 

could reduce the costs of solar energy production to a point 

where it will be able to compete with fossil fuels like oil. 

In conventional photovoltaic technology, solar panels become 

less efficient as temperatures rise. With this PETE process, the 

solar panels work well in spite of higher temperatures. According 

to Science Daily, Nick Melosh, the Assistant Professor of 

Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford stated that this 

is a conceptual breakthrough and a new energy conversion process. 

The materials that are used in the development to enable 

this process are cheap and easily available. Most photovoltaic 

cells use the semiconducting material silicon to convert energy 

from the light photons into useful power. Nevertheless, the process 

utilises only a portion of the light spectrum with the rest 

lost as heat. This heat results in inefficiencies. Rectifying this 

would entail the combination of thermal and solar cell con- 

Boston University 

Extra-terrestrial findings 

Where the sun shines extra bright, its additional might rendering 

it perfect for solar energy, is also the state in which dust balls 

become most frequent. Dust particles, minuscule as they are, 

lead to inefficiencies in the conversion of sunlight into electricity. 

The solution that was put forth by Boston University’s Department 

of Electrical and Computer Engineering is the electro 

dynamic transparent screen. Under Research Professor Malay 

Mazumder’s watchful eyes, the team developed the screen by 

depositing a transparent, electrically sensitive material, indium 

tin oxide on glass or a clear plastic sheet covering the solar panels. 

When energy flows through these particles, the electrodes 

version technologies, exactly what Melosh and his team have 

devised. The metal Cesium is found to hold the answer as the 

material that can master both heat and light and change them 

into electricity. Melosh’s findings have been published in Nature 

Materials. 

www.mse.stanford.edu 

www.sciencedaily.com 

produce a traveling wave of electrostatic and dielectrophoretic 

forces that lift the dust particles from the surface and transport 

them to the edge of the screen. 90 percent of the deposited 

dust can be removed in less than a minute, according to 

the university. Solar panels are positioned at an angle; thereby 

the raised dust will simply fall off. The researchers are in the 

hope that their technique will also work in keeping raindrops 

and mud at bay. 

www.bu.edu 

www.scientificamerican.com 

Photo: Pete Melosh

Rutgers inexpensive plastic solar cells 

Physicists at Rutgers University have discovered 

new properties in a material that 

has the potential to be developed into an 

inexpensive plastic solar cell for a pollution-free 

electricity production. Contradicting 

previous observations by scientists, 

the new discovery headed by 

Assistant Professor Vitaly Podzorov, 

shows that energy-carrying particles 

generated by packets of light can actually 

travel a thousand times farther in organic 

semiconductors. This technology has the 

potential to be manufactured in a more 

cost effective manner compared to silicon 

solar cells. Podorov and his team have released 

a report saying that the excitons, 

particles that form when semi conductor 

materials absorb photons or light particles, 

can actually travel a thousand times 

farther in an extremely pure crystal organic 

semiconductor called rubrene. The 

technological findings up to today state 

that these excitons can travel to less than 

twenty nanometers in organic semi conductors. 

The discovery proves that the ex- 

Register now for North America‘s most important event on utility-scale PV 

PV Power Plants 2010 – USA 

Utility-scale PV: Market Outlook, Financing, Technology - Connecting Energy Providers and PV Professionals 

Las Vegas, NV, USA, 1–2 December 2010 

Conference Advisor 

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Media Partners 

Gold Sponsors 

citon diffusion is similar to that in inorganic 

solar cell materials, a delocalized 

form known as Wannier-Mott or WM 

excitons. These WM excitons move substantially 

more rapidly through crystal 

lattices this resulting in better opto-electronic 

properties. The high purity rebrene 

crystals are only available for the moment 

in the physics labs at Rutgers. Neverthe 

less, the research has proven that the exciton 

bottleneck is no longer a boundary 

and can be broken. This will potentially 

lead to the production of a commercial, 

manufacturable material for plastic 

solar cells. The research embarked on 

by Podzorov and his team also led to a 

new methodology of measuring excitons 

based on optical spectroscopy. Conventional 

methods have always been insufficient 

in the measuring of excitons as 

they do not carry a charge. The researchers 

have developed a new technique in the 

course of their research towards the inexpensive 

plastic solar cells that enables 

them to measure these excitons. Polar- 


ization resolved photocurrent spectroscopy 

dissociates excitons at the crystal’s 

surface and reveals a large photocurrent. 

This solution can also be applied to other 

materials. The funding was provided by 

the National Science Foundation’s Division 

of Materials Research and Japan’s 

New Energy and Industrial Technology 

Development Organization. 

www.rutgers.edu 

Advertisement 

Photo: Rutgers University 

Request further information 

Contact: davidgaden@solarpraxis.de 

Updated program available 

www.solarpraxis.de/en/conferences 

Next event in our series on utility-scale PV 

PV Power Plants 2011 – EU 

10-11 March 2011 • Paris, France

Photo: Wikipedia/Edal Anton Lefterov 

104 

Service 

SEE Solar 2010 (Bulgaria, December 3, 2010) 

Southeastern Europe in focus 

The focus is switching to southeastern 

Europe as next hot spot for solar invest- 

1st Solar Industry Summit India 2011 (India, January 13, 2011) 

Application meets production 

Solarpraxis will be holding the first solar 

industry summit in Mumbai, India, with 

a special focus on how to use and produce 

PV in India. The conference will bring together 

professionals from the industry, 

policy-makers, suppliers and solar associations. 

It will look at the application 

and production processes involved in 

India pertaining to successful setup, and 

provide a platform for knowledge-shar- 

PV Directory 

Industry Registry 

You will find a lot of useful information about products and services on the Internet pages of our advertising 

customers. The addresses listed below are sorted into, among other criteria PV market categories. This will help 

you to quickly locate the product you are looking for. 

System Integrator & Off Grid Mounting Systems 

Phaesun GmbH 

Renusol GmbH 

www.phaesun.com 

www.renusol.com 

Inverter Modules 

Satcon Technology Corporation 

www.satcon.com 

Modules Modules 

Sunlink 

www.sunlink-pv.com 

ment. At the SEE Solar 2010, which takes 

place in Sofia, Bulgaria, on December 3 

Photo: Antonio Milena ABr 

Upsolar Co. Ltd. 

www.upsolar.com 

AVANCIS GmbH & Co. KG 

www.avancis.de 

2010, organizer EastEuro Link will bring 

together the most important figures 

in the region and in the solar industry 

today to share their experiences and develop 

new opportunities for the region. 

Country focused case studies include the 

Bulgarian PV market, insight on Turkey 

and the potential of Croatia. Key areas to 

be addressed include global and SEE solar 

market outlooks and analysis, the future 

forecasts, investment strategies and grid 

parity in the region. The event will also 

be an opportunity to network with the 

industry’s professionals in the South East 

Europe region. 

www.easteurolink.co.uk 

ing for operating in this up and coming 

solar market. Additionally it will give an 

overview of worldwide market development, 

the status quo for crystalline and 

thin film photovoltaics, project development, 

quality assurance, finance and 

bankability. The summit will run parallel 

to the 2nd Glasspex India 2011. 



Events 2010 

DatE EvEnt LocatIon organIzEr MorE InforMatIon typE of EvEnt 

november 

Nov 17-19 PV Tech 2010 Milan (Italy) Artenergy Publishing Srl www.hitechexpo.eu Conference & Exhibition 

Nov 18-20 11th China Solar PV Nanjing (China) China Renewable 

Energy Society 


www.ch-solar.com Conference & Exhibition 

Nov 18-19 3rd Concentrated Photovoltaic Summit Europe Seville (Spain) CPV Today www.cpvtoday.com Conference 

Nov 25-27 Renexpo Austria Salzburg (Austria) REECO www.renexpo-austria.at Conference & Exhibition 

December 

Dec 1-2 Photovoltaics USA Santa Clara (USA) IDTechEx Ltd www.idtechex.com Conference & Exhibition 

Dec 2-3 PV Power Plants USA Las Vegas (USA) Solarpraxis AG www.solarpraxis.de Conference 

Dec 2-5 Global Energy 2010 Bangalore (India) SPACE CRAFT www.global-energy2009.com Conference & Exhibition 

Dec 3 SEE Solar Sofia (Bulgaria) EastEuro Link www.easteurolink.co.uk/see-solar Conference 

Dec 14-16 PowER-GEN Orlando (USA) PennWell www.power-gen.com Conference & Exhibition 

Dec 14-16 Intersolar India Mumbai (India) Solar Promotion GmbH www.intersolar.in Conference & Exhibition 

Events 2011 

DatE EvEnt LocatIon organIzEr MorE InforMatIon typE of EvEnt 

January 

Jan 13 1st Solar Industry Summit India Mumbai (India) Solarpraxis AG www.solarpraxis.de/en/conferences Conference 

Jan 17-20 World Future Energy Summit 2011 Abu Dhabi (VAR) Reed Exhibition www.worldfutureenergysummit.com Exhibition 

Jan 19-21 Photovoltaics Solar Summit Scottsdale (USA) IntertechPira www.photovoltaicssummit.com Conference 

Jan 24-25 1st Inverter and PV System Technology Forum Berlin (Germany) Solarpraxis AG www.solarpraxis.de Conference 

Jan 25-26 Solar Power Generation USA Las Vegas (USA) Green Power Conferences www.greenpowerconferences.com Conference 

Jan 27-29 InterSOLUTION 2011 Ghent (Belgium) DELFICO bvba www.intersolution.be Exhibition 

february 

Feb 10-11 PV-Rollout – European American Solar 

Deployment Conference 

Boston (USA) OTTI www.otti.de Conference 

Feb 15-17 Photovoltaic Technology Show 2011 San Francisco (USA) Photon Expo www.photon-expo.com Conference & Exhibition 

Feb 15-18 Salon des Energie Renouvelables Lyon (France) GL Events www.energie-ren.com/2011 Conference & Exhibition 

Feb 16-18 Expo Energética Valencia (Spain) Feria Valencia www.egetica-expoenergetica.com/feria/en Exhibition 

Feb 16-18 EXPO Solar Seoul, Kintex (Korea) Interpv/Solar Today/ 

Green Business 

www.exposolar.org Conference & Exhibition 

Feb 17-19 Renewtech India Mumbai (India) MCO-Winmark www.renewtechindia.com Conference & Exhibition 

Feb 22-24 SNEC PV Power Expo Shanghai (China) Shanghai New Energy 

Industry Association 

www.snec.org.cn Conference & Exhibition 

Feb 24-25 

March 

Conferenza dell' Industria Solare – Italia 

(CIS-IT 2011) 

Rome (Italy) Solarpraxis AG www.solarpraxis.de Conference 

March 2-4 PV Expo Tokyo (Japan) Reed Exhibitions Japan www.pvexpo.jp Exhibition 

March 2-4 World Sustainable Energy Days 2011 Wels (Austria) O.Ö. Energiesparverband www.wsed.at Conference 

March 2-4 26th Photovoltaic Symposium Bad Staffelstein (Germany) OTTI www.otti.de Conference & Exhibition 

March 8-10 Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo Tampa (USA) PennWell www.renewableenergyworld-events.com Conference & Exhibition 

March 10-11 PV Power Plants 2011 – EU Paris (France) Solarpraxis AG www.solarpraxis.de Conference 

March 11-13 4th Solar & PV Technologies Exhibition In Turkey Istanbul (Turkey) Ihlas Fuarcilik www.gunesenerji.com Exhibition 

March 15-17 SOLARCON China Shanghai (China) SEMI www.solarconchina.org Conference & Exhibition 

March 29-31 

april 

Clean Technology World Africa 2011 Johannesburg (South Africa) Terrapinn www.terrapinn.com Conference & Exhibition 

April 3-5 PV America Philadelphia (USA) SEIA/SEPA events.jspargo.com/seia10/public/enter.aspx Conference & Exhibition 

April 4-6 7th CPV Las Vegas (USA) NREL/PSE www.cpv-conference.org Conference 

April 6-8 International Green Energy Expo Korea Daegu (South Korea) Green Energy Expo www.energyexpo.co.kr Conference & Exhibition 

April 8-10 CIPV Expo Beijing (China) CCPIT www.cipvexpo.cn Conference & Exhibition 

April 13-16 Renewables 2011 Indonesia Jakarta (Indonesia) MMI Asia www.renewables-indonesia.com Conference & Exhibition 

April 14-15 Thin Film Forum Berlin (Germany) Solarpraxis AG www.solarpraxis.de Conference 

April 14-16 Indo PV Power Jakarta (Indonesia) CEMS USA/India www.indo-power.com Exhibition 

April 19-21 PV+solar India Expo Mumbai (India) Electronics Today www.electronicstoday.org Conference & Exhibition 

Service 

105

Preview of issue 12/2010 

The next issue will be published on December 15, 2010 

Trackers: market overview 

pv magazine digs deep into solar tracking 

systems, profiling products from around 

the world. Economical and ecological drivers 

are also discussed, and a market overview 

presented. 

Imprint 

Publisher 

Karl-Heinz Remmers 

Solarpraxis AG 

Zinnowitzer Str. 1 

10115 Berlin / Germany 

Editors 

Hans-Christoph Neidlein (Editor in chief) 

neidlein@pv-magazine.com 

Eva Maria Weber 

eva.weber@pv-magazine.com 

Shamsiah Ali-Oettinger 

shamsiah.oettinger@pv-magazine.com 

Becky Stuart 

becky.stuart@pv-magazine.com 

Authors in this issue: Vahdet Avci, Dr. Michael 

Fuhs, Gema Garay, Eckhart Gouras, Jennifer 

Kho, Susanne Kircher, Adam Krop, Jane Miller, 

Martin Reeh, Dr. Arndt Reuning, Anja Riedel, 

Oliver Ristau, Matthias Schneider, Ulrike 

Schramm, Ucilia Wang, Jan Wieduwilt, Anton 

Zimmermann 

Proof reader, copy editor: James Harris 

Translators: Herbert Eppel, Alan Faulcon, Susan 

Spies, Petite Planète, eubylon 

Photo editor: Andreas Schlegel 

Editorial assistant 

Petra Franke 

Tel. +49 (0)30 / 72 62 96-303 

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Ad Sales Manager 

Anne Warnk 

Tel. +49 (0)30 / 72 62 96-328 

anne.warnk@pv-magazine.com 

Photo: SunPower 

Anti-reflection glass 

PV modules suffer from reduced conversion 

efficiencies even before the sun’s rays reach 

the solar cells. Anti-reflective coatings can 

be a simple solution. pv magazine reviews 

different technologies and products. 

Ad sales 

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Singapore Energy Week 

The SIEW is an annual platform to discuss 

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the Asian market. We review the financing 

and investment opportunities available. 


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ISSN 1865-3138 

Photo: Jan Arkesteijn

Welcome to visit us 

at 2010 Ener Solar 

Hall 10-L17 L18

Dealing a 

strong hand 

AS Solar Benelux BVBA 

Nijverheidsstraat 10 

B - 8760 Meulebeke 

Tel.: +32 51 4052 - 22 

Fax: +32 51 4058 - 22 

www.as-benelux.com 

Solar 

ASFrance 

SAS 

AS Solar France SAS 

205-207 Avenue F. Roosevelt 

F - 69150 Decines Charpieu 

Tel.: +33 472 3714 - 33 

Fax: +33 472 3716 - 61 

www.as-france.com 

AS Solar Ibérica de S.E.A. S.L. 

C/La Resina 37, Nave 2 

E - 28021 Madrid 

Tel.: +34 91 723 16 00 

Fax: +34 91 798 85 28 

www.as-iberica.com 

Solar SRL AS 

AS Solar Energii R. SRL 

Str. Lemnarilor 14. Jud. Harghita 

RO - 535600 Odorheiu-Secuiesc 

Tel.: +40 266 216272 

Fax: +40 266 216272 

www.as-solar-er.com 

Solar 

ASItalia SRL 

AS Solar Italia SRL 

Via Concordia 7 

20090 Assago (MI) 

Tel.: +39 02 57506884 

Fax: +39 02 89263372 

www.as-italia.com 

www.as-solar.com 

Scoring as a team 

With AS Solar you always have the clear advantage 

because reliable brand quality and first-class service 

are an asset for you and your customers. We support 

you with know-how such as expert planning, technical 

support, financing or qualifications; we are always on 

your side! 

AS Solar Lighting the Way. 

AS Solar GmbH, Wholesaler for Solar Technology 

Am Tönniesberg 4A 

D-30453 Hannover 

www.as-solar.com 

AS Solar Inc. 

163 Ashworth Rd. 

Mount Albert, Ontario, L0G-1M0 

Canada 

Tel: +1 (888) 867-9288 

www.as-solar-inc.com 

Tel.: +49 511 475578-0 

Fax: +49 511 475578-11 

info@as-solar.com 

Solar 

ASMaroc 

AS Solar Maroc SARL 

6 rue Patrice Lumumba 

3000 Fes 

Maroc 

www.as-maroc.com 

SARL

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