PV I MANUFACTURING
Manufacturing
success
Chinese manufacturer Serpahim is only a few years old but is already making a splash by making some of the best PV panels in the world. David Ridsdale looks at what was behind the success story.
SOLAR MANUFACTURING has become a lucrative global enterprise with competition increasing as company’s attempt to maintain a foothold in a consolidating market. Despite the opportunities available in a global market place there appeared to be little room for new entrants in PV and solar manufacturing and less likely that such a new comer would have much impact.
For this reason many industry observers were surprised when a relatively unknown start up company topped the 2012 yearly rankings for Photon International’s annual performance and yield list. This followed their impressive debut the year before when they were ranked second. The results put Chinese company Seraphim firmly in the cross hairs of industry attention. How could a tier two company only three years old not only top the table but appear to surpass the performance of competitors who had been developing their product for much longer.
When I first came across the company I did a bit of reconnaissance and came across a video the company had released showing its manufacturing facility. I remember thinking at the time how much the facility and the video presentation reminded me of semiconductor manufacturing, where I had cut my editorial teeth. The high level of automated manufacturing and attention to detail struck me as closer to the rigours of semiconductor manufacturing than the usual PV cell manufacturing plant.
A quick look at the top brass at Seraphim confirmed my suspicions that the company had been set up by individuals from the semiconductor manufacturing sector. The technical team all have excellent backgrounds in the very competitive semiconductor industry at the highest levels.
Endy Qian is the Operation Director for Seraphim and holds an MD in Management and a Bachelor Of Mechanical-Electrical Integration. Endy began his career with semiconductor tool manufacture Semitool and from 2005 was technical support manager for Applied Materials where he held responsibility for East Asia. While these companies may not be as well known in the solar industry they are giants of the semiconductor
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manufacturing sector. Seraphim also boast Light Li as head of sales ad marketing. Light holds an MBA and Bachelor Of Science And Technology. Light worked for AMD in China at the turn of the century before managing Asia region business for semiconductor packaging leader Kulicke and Soffa.
The third leg of Seraphim’s public leadership is Woophen Zhu who acts as Supply Chain Director for the company that has decided to tackle the PV value chain from ingot to module. Woophen holds a Bachelor Degree Of Micro-Electronics Science and spent more than 5 Years In KEC Korea, a Korean Wafer Fab and then as Sales Director for Sunpass PV equipment division.
These three key individuals have brought a very technical and well thought out plan to the company based on their semiconductor expertise. The road map for Seraphim from the very beginning was bullish in its goal to become the best PV module in the world. Such a claim at the start up phase of a company is best taken with a grain of salt but Seraphim has consistently backed its initial claims with consistent outcomes.
Of course it is not just the technical side that can allow a company to move so impressively along its chosen technical path. Setting up the factories and developing product along the entire value chain is not a cheap process and Seraphim has the full financial backing of diversified business giant Honland Group.
While the name may not be so well known outside of China, the Honland Group is a rapidly growing group of companies that began in 1969 as a farm machine manufacturer. The group has now diversified into furniture and lighting specialists with a strong Real Estate group developing and a section for rising technologies. They have developed a strong presence in the cabling sector and have a strong capital base.
At present the Honland Group is keeping a very low profile in Seraphim’s affairs and as yet have not included it on the corporate structure. As a privately held company they do not disclose the financial support but considering the three FABs which cover everything from silicon ingot, solar cell and solar
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