Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), one of the world’s leading manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, has begun construction on a thin film R&D and manufacturing facility in Caohejing Hi-tech Park in Shanghai, China.
The first phase of the new plant is expected to begin operation in 2008 reaching 50MW of thin film solar cell production capacity in 2009.
Suntech’s thin film module production will be based on technology that deposits amorphous and micro-crystalline silicon thin film on glass substrate. The product will use less than 2% of the silicon required to manufacture equivalent crystalline silicon PV products.
Suntech currently projects that the thin film modules will have a solar conversion efficiency of 6% to 9% and an initial production cost of approximately $1.20 per watt (based on 6% solar conversion efficiency), which should decline as both production scale and conversion efficiencies increase.
The thin film modules will be nearly 6 square meters in size, which would make the balance of system installation costs of Suntech’s thin film solution significantly lower than other PV solutions.
“After having acquired MSK, one of the industry leaders in the building integrated photovoltaic products (BIPV) space, we were very pleased to see that there is both a strong and long term global sales market for these products, especially thin film PV modules. We anticipate many complementary sales opportunities to our traditional PV product customer base. We plan to combine our thin film product with MSK’s BIPV product thereby capturing a greater portion of the PV value chain in a higher margin, higher ASP and higher value added product segment,” said Dr. Zhengrong Shi Suntech’s Chairman and CEO.
“While BIPV is currently a relatively small segment of the overall solar market, it is one which we expect will grow rapidly in the coming years,” added Dr. Shi. “Low projected production costs, which are projected to continue to fall from a very low base, when combined with growing residential and commercial demand for our leading BIPV solutions will help make our products very competitive in this space.”
Suntech acquired Japan’s MSK Corporation in 2006. Dr. Shi was a senior research scientist and the leader of the Thin Film Solar Cells Research Group in the Centre of Excellence for Photovoltaic Engineering at the University of New South Wales in Australia and holds multiple patents in thin film technology. Prior to founding Suntech, Dr. Shi and various of Suntech’s key officers and researchers were employed at an Australian PV company engaged in the commercialization of next-generation crystalline silicon thin film technology.
Suntech’s recent letter of intent with U.S.-based Open Energy to further BIPV initiatives is intended to expand BIPV sales of each company which will be furthered by Suntech’s thin film initiatives. As part of the collaboration, Suntech will manufacture Open Energy’s SolarSave(R) PV Tiles and jointly promote BIPV products in the North American market.
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