news digest ♦ Solar
First Solar has released its most advanced thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module, the Series 3 FS-392, which is rated at 92.5 W.
The new FS-392 module maintains all the existing IEC certifications and UL listings for the Series 3 family, including UL listing for 1000 V systems.
“The FS-392 demonstrates the success of First Solar’s R&D investment to drive higher and higher module conversion efficiencies into production,” says Tom Kuster, First Solar Vice President of Product Management and System Technology. “This increase in module efficiency, coupled with our thin-film technology’s real-world yield advantage when compared to crystalline silicon PV, results in higher energy density and lower levelised cost of energy (LCOE).”
One of the drivers of First Solar modules’ performance advantage over crystalline silicon solar modules is a lower temperature coefficient, delivering higher energy yields at elevated operating temperatures typical of utility-scale power plants in sunny regions.
Also, according to Lux Research, CdTe modules are set to become the cheapest in the years to come.
Lux: CdTe to pip CIGS to the post in costings
Solar module production costs will fall to as low as $0.48/W in 2017. Although CIGS modules will drop the most, nearly matching crystalline silicon, cadmium telluride will remain the low-cost leader
The solar industry is reeling from overcapacity and supply outstrips demand by two to one. It needs to drive costs lower in order to overcome diminished subsidies and regain profitability and the cost reductions it needs are at hand, according to Lux Research.
Module prices have fallen precipitously over the past four years to a low of $0.70/W but the cost of goods sold (COGS) for modules has not reached this level, resulting in massive losses for most module manufacturers.
“With pressure from competitors, customers, 178
www.compoundsemiconductor.net January/February 2013
and policy-makers to drop prices even further, manufacturers need to drive costs down to survive and thrive during the coming years of growth in the demand market,” says Ed Cahill, Lux Research Associate and the lead author of the report titled, “Module Cost Structure Update: Path to Profitability.”
Lux Research conducted a cost and sensitivity analysis, examining the impacts of drivers like low-cost manufacturing locations, high efficiency, increased capacity utilisation, and higher production yields on module COGS. Among their findings:
CIGS has the greatest potential to cut cost. COGS will fall across the board between 2012 and 2017, but the rate of decline will be the steepest for CIGS thin-film modules, which can shave $0.14/W off the cost to $0.64/W.
CdTe remains the low cost leader. Despite the travails of its main champion, First Solar, CdTe thin-film modules will remain the cheapest solar option in 2017, at $0.48/W, down from the current $0.67/W.
Efficiencies are the key driver. Manufacturing location has the greatest potential influence on COGS but overcapacity makes opening new facilities in low-cost countries unlikely. Consequently, increasing module efficiencies will make the most difference, up to $0.09/W for mc-Si and $0.21/W for CIGS.
Pioneer PV launches ‘microsolar’ CIGS outfit
The firm’s copper indium diselenide microsolar- scale panels are suited to many applications. These include mobile consumer electronics, parking meters, remote industrial sensors, rural water filtration and purification systems
Pioneer PV Solutions, a next-generation, thin-film microsolar CIGS company, has officially launched its operations.
Pioneer plans to provide high-quality, off-the- shelf, compact solar solutions for rechargeable and DC power applications to an underserved, multibillion dollar market segment suffering from an
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