Photovoltaics at SEMICON West 2007

Photovoltaics outshine the semi biz

Although SEMICON West 2007 wound down on July 20, 2007, I am just getting to pointing out presentations and providing multimedia about the programs, events, and exhibition. Here is the official SEMICON West 2007 Post-Show Report.

When I was looking for presentations from the keynotes and TechXPOTs from SEMICON West to be placed online based on a tip from an organizer, I stumbled upon this post Nano, MEMS and Energy Presentations Available on semiconwest.org! on the lublog.

Instead of linking to the abstracts, the titles now link to the presentations. There is great information ranging from SunPower Public Relations type hype to thin film manufacturing equipment and solar grade silicon. This is the next best thing to attending SEMICON West 2007 and seeing all the presentations. I noticed official videos recorded at each session, but I have not seen any of these surface yet.

Keynotes:
How Silicon Valley is Helping to Solve the Energy Dependence Problem
T.J. Rodgers, Chairman, SunPower Corporation

Solar Energy: The Next Great Growth Opportunity for the Semiconductor Industry
Rhone Resch, President, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)

TechXPOT - Emerging Technologies - Nanoelectronic and Nanoenergy Applications:
Advances in Flexible Thin-Film Solar Cells
David Pearce, President and CEO, Miasolé

TechXPOT - Emerging Technologies - Renewable Energy: Solar and Fuel Cells:
Issues of Going to Gigawatt-scale Solar Manufacturing
Charlie Gay, VP and general manager, Solar Business Group, Applied Materials

Thin Film Silicon- Key to Photovoltaics
Hans Brändle, Head of Oerlikon Balzers Coating, executive VP Oerlikon

I apologize for not giving Oerlikon equal time. I misjudged my video recording capacity, and I was struggling to free space for photos throughout the TechXPOT. Dr. Brändle was very gracious and acknowledged Charlie Gay’s opening presentation. Even though Oerlikon sponsored this TechXPOT, the moderator made a mistake in allowing too many questions for Applied Materials to the detriment of Oerlikon and the following presenters.

Alternative Silicon Materials for Solar
Gaetan Borgers, Director Dow Corning Solar Solutions

Manufacturing High Efficiency Solar Cells
Nasreen Chopra, Director of Equipment R&D, SunPower Corporation

I am starting to see a pattern in SunPower presentations. Over half of this time slot was another SunPower hype flashback. No Public Relations minders were there to prevent Dr. Chopra from making a political correctness faux pas concerning the professionalism and quality of small specialty solar equipment manufacturers located in remote European alpine locations. Dr. Chopra, have you heard about globalization? You do realize your cells and modules are manufactured in a remote location in the Philippines and might travel down congested and infrastructure challenged highways to Manila for shipment all over the world?

Of course, you can expect further commentary on the various presentations and the exhibition to follow. I am under pressure to post or perish today.

If you haven’t seen them, I suggest checking out these posts over at the Cleantech Blog by Neal Dikeman:
When it Comes to Solar - Lest We Forget
Rising Solar Prices - Where is the Shakeout?
Is IBM Going Solar?

Solar Light Flashes: July 22, 2007

Select Photovoltaic News Tidbits

Intersolar 2007 and 2006 California Clean Tech Open (CCTO) companies have dominated Blog coverage over the past month. It’s time to get back to covering staple companies and topics although there are follow up Intersolar 2007 and PV Industry Forum 2007 posts plus SEMICON West coverage in the works.

Applied Materials:
Applied Materials Names Chris Eberspacher to Lead Advanced Solar Research and Development lends support to the notion that things may not be so rosy at Nanosolar. Dr. Eberspacher left Nanosolar just over one month ago.

Blue Square Energy (BSE):
Alan Swanson Joins Blue Square Energy as Vice President of Manufacturing Operations bringing thirty years of experience from Tyco Electronics and the former AMP, Inc. To complete the management team in preparation for a potential IPO, BSE needs to name a VP of Engineering or CTO or both.

CMC Magnetics Corp:
Following the Moser Baer model, CMC Magnetics, the largest Taiwanese maker of optical media, is setting up a subsidiary, Sun Well Technology, to produce thin film solar modules in Taiwan. Information from industry sources (rumors) allege the 100MWp facility will be equipped by Oerlikon Solar.

Cool Earth Solar:
I stumbled on this video animation titled Inflatable Solar Collectors on YouTube. I don’t know the origin of the animation, but this appears genuine.

HyCore:
Norsk Hydro ASA (NYSE:NHY) and the Umicore Group (EBR:UMI) have formed the HyCore joint venture to produce solar grade silicon from metallurgical silicon using a process first researched by Umicore. €26 million will be invested to construct a 20 metric ton pilot plant at Herøya, in Porsgrunn, Norway, by 2008. If proven successful, a larger facility will be constructed at the same site to produce industrial scale volumes by 2010.

Umicore has about 90% market share in Germanium (Ge) substrate wafers required for compound semiconductors like III-V Triple Junction solar cells used in High Concentration Photovoltaic systems.

NJCEP:
Updated CORE Queues every two weeks now? CORE Queue > 10kw July 13, 2007 (greater than 10kW), CORE Queue <= 10kw July 13, 2007 (less than or equal to 10kW), Public Non K-12 Schools CORE Queue July 13, 2007, and Public K-12 Schools CORE Queue July 13, 2007 are available. An Updated 2007 CORE Budget July 13, 2007 shows the under funded status details of the main CORE Queues, and the Comment Summary: New Jersey Renewable Energy Solar Market Transition Straw Proposal has a number of company and policy centric comments and counter proposals.

A fresh new look for the NJCEP website is due by August 1, 2007.

Oerlikon Solar:
I heard Oerlikon Solar was briefing press (though not this blogger!) about a significant announcement. I have no idea what it is, but speculations include ersol or Schott in official production, more new orders like CMC Magnetics, or could Micromorph tools be shipping?

Solar Newsletter No. 2, July 17, 2007, was distributed at SEMICON West but is not yet on the Oerlikon Solar website at post time.

PV Cycle:
Per the EPIA (European Photovoltaic Industry Association) Newsletter, SOLARIS, the PV CYCLE association created on 5th July 2007 by founding members: Avancis, BSW, Conergy, EPIA, Isofotón, Schott Solar, SolarWorld, and Sulfurcell. An executive board was appointed to prepare for the first General Assembly meeting of the PV Cycle association scheduled for September 18, 2007, in Brussels, Belgium. Interested companies are welcome to apply for membership in the PV CYCLE association and membership information should be forthcoming to EPIA members.

Sol3g, S.L.:
In Sol3g makes a 1 kWp pilot installation financed by Solúcar, an Abengoa subsidiary, the company announced an agreement with Solúcar Energia, S.A., for a 1kWp (kilowatt-peak) HCPV (High Concentration PhotoVoltaic) system pilot installation. Another 20kWp of HCPV modules (M40?) will be supplied for mounting on Solúcar’s own two-axis tracker. Both of these systems will be located in the Solar Platform of Sanlúcar la Mayor, Sevilla, Spain.

SunPower:
And SunPower CEO Tom Werner Named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 Award Recipient in Northern California would not be my first choice since I believe the PowerLight acquisition is an expensive distraction from increasing SunPower’s production of the highest efficiency, back contact, monocrystalline solar cells and modules. Why was Ernst & Young LLP not disclosed as being the independent auditor of PowerLight Corporation’s financials from 2005 and 2006? Although the award claims to use a panel of independent judges, how were the initial nominations made?

The SPR-315 datasheet is now online at the SunPower website.

Given the accelerated velocity of photovoltaic and solar activity, I don’t envy publications trying to cover every aspect of the PV Industry. I’ll stick with this Blog’s established format of looking for areas less covered or where I can add insight and commentary.

Solar Light Flashes: Intersolar 2007

[Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany]

Quick Photovoltaic News and Fun Tidbits from Intersolar 2007

Company News

SunPower (Stand No 10.2.83, NASDAQ:SPWR): SPR-315 delayed again!
Since I posted Where is the SunPower SPR-315 Solar Module?, SPR-315 deliveries have been rescheduled for Fall 2007, almost one year since the product was announced at Solar Power 2006. A company spokesperson indicated the delay may be related to filling backlog for legacy SPR solar modules. I prefer the conspiracy theory that the new Gen 2 solar cells or the larger module form factor is the root cause. SunPower claims to be taking SPR-315 orders now, and there is already a preorder backlog.

Schott Solar (Stand No F4.2.09): I caught their press conference when they rounded up press folks from the press room today. Schott Solar has plans to expand silicon solar cell and module production to 450MWp per year capacity by 2010. When I asked about silicon feedstock, Schott Solar had no announcement yet about silicon supply to drive this production level. As mentioned here last year, Schott Solar’s EFG (Edge-defined Film-fed Growth) process requires granular polysilicon.

Izusu Glass Co., LTD. (Stand No 9.3.33): Concentrators are red hot! Izusu Glass has a stand at Intersolar 2007 promoting their Fresnel lenses, Compound Parabolic Concentrators (CPC), molded high accuracy lenses, and Cylinder and Micro Lens Arrays for solar and concentrating photovoltaic applications.

Category leaders
Battle of the Booths (Stands): Oerlikon.
Oerlikon Solar (Stand No 10.2.13) beats Applied Materials (Stand No 10.1.36) without breaking a sweat. In fact, Applied Materials is at the top of my list for most boring booth, an honor I awarded to Conergy AG last year in secret. Here are the photos. You decide.

Best Green Giveaway: Phoenix Solar (Stand No 4.4.27).
Phoenix branded apples in the press room are about as green as swag can be.

Most over used moniker: Solar Valley.
Starting at the Intersolar press conference, numerous regions are claiming this progressive renewable energy tag. BSW (Bundesverbandes Solarwirtschaft, Stand No F4.3.61) claimed the country Germany is one big solar valley. The Investitions- und Marketinggesellschaft Sachsen-Anhalt mbH (Stand No 6.3.22) and SAVOIE - Agence Economique de la Savoie (Stand No 7.2.55) also invoked the Solar Valley name at Intersolar. Ms. Cherpin, Directrice Commerciale, pitched a strong case for SAVOIE as a natural valley worthy of the Solar moniker.

Solar Jewelry: Tie between Solarschmuck Claudia Kohm (Stand No F2.5.02) and SolArt (Stand No F2.4.02). A slight edge goes to Frau Kohm who is working through the show with her husband’s help after an accident involving her mouth and neck. I didn’t pry for details. As an extra, Solarschmuck offers custom lapel pins with company logo treatments. One time setup charges range from €100 to € 300 with € 6 to € 9 per piece pricing.

Best Promotion: SOLON AG (Stand No 4.5.47) partnering with VECTRIX Corp.
I bumped into GAME OVER CO2 walking to Starbucks in Freiburg Altstadt after the PV Industry Forum 2007. Solon set up a demonstrator electric scooter photovoltaic recharging station at Platz der alten Synagoge and offered test drives to licensed motorcycle drivers. The CO2 folks were in character and denied their role in global warming. These mega CO2 molecules are nasty but easy to spot unlike odorless and colorless carbon dioxide gases.

Best advertisement: SOLAR-KABEL GmbH (Stand No F3.1.01).
Yes, there does appear to be an artistic approach to making cables exciting. I have requested the electronic version of this ad. The above is a mediocre photo of the poster. I also noticed this ad in the 00 issue of Photovoltaik. This one reminds me of the Claudia Schiffer post.

There is a bluespot gap at Intersolar 2007. Outside of the press room, I have been using an unknown, unsecured WiFi connection available at Freiburg’s Starbucks to post my articles.

Applied Materials Solar shuts out Oerlikon Solar 3:0

Applied Materials builds thin film photovoltaic production equipment lead in the first quarter of 2007

In advance of the PHOTON Expo, I was expecting new polysilicon production facility and supplier agreements to lead the photovoltaic headlines. But the real news may be on the production equipment front.

Since the Solar division of OC Oerlikon Corporation AG (VTX:OERL) won this CHF 320 million order from Saudi investor backed German API GmbH, Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) has been on the thin film photovoltaic offensive.

Things got rolling on February 7, 2007, with Applied Materials Names Winfried Hoffmann Chief Technology Officer of Solar Business Group. Given his tenure at SCHOTT Solar GmbH, Dr. Hoffman was in a unique position to evaluate production equipment offerings from both Oerlikon, which equipped the SCHOTT thin film plant in Jena, Germany, and Applied Materials. Since both companies have offices in Alzenau, Germany, I hope Dr. Hoffmann does not on occasion drive to SCHOTT Solar by accident out of habit.

With Applied Materials Selected by Moser Baer to Deliver World's First Gen 8.5 Thin Film Solar Production Line, Applied Materials has changed the playing field for Oerlikon:

Applied’s Gen 8.5 Line is designed for flexibility because production output can be configured for final product sizes from 1.4m² to 5.7m². Current thin film production lines are configured for panel sizes limited to dimensions less than 1.5m².

So far, Oerlikon’s amorphous silicon thin film production solution permits the production of any size panel, as long as it is 1.4 square meters in size. Since these low efficiency panels are well suited for BIPV (Building Integrated PhotoVoltaics) applications, architects love the flexibility of one size fits all glass solar panels – NOT! No doubt this is why Oerlikon customer ErSol CEO Claus Beneking was seen spending lots of time visiting the Applied Materials booth at Solar Power 2006. Oerlikon recognizes this deficiency and decided to make an acquisition to correct this:

In order to also cover the process step of laser scribing with its own technology and equipment, Oerlikon acquired the English company Exitech a few days ago (see press release of December 5, 2006). Laser scribing is the key step of subdividing the coated glass surface into individual solar cells and configuring them in a functional module.

In the last score, T-Solar Global S.A. of Spain has also purchased a Gen 8.5 thin film production line per Applied Materials to Deliver Europe's First Production Line for Manufacturing Ultra-Large, Cost-Efficient Solar Panels.

Applied Materials has been leading by renewable energy example with the purchase of 8,220,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean renewable energy per Applied Materials Demonstrates Clean Energy Leadership and Applied Materials Commits to Leading U.S. Solar Power Generation Capability with the installation of over 1.9 megawatts of solar power generation capability at its research campus in Sunnyvale, California.

Special thanks and much success are extended to Dr. Hoffman in his new duties as CTO of Applied Materials Solar division beginning April 2, 2007. Dr. Hoffmann is a tireless Solar Advocate who was willing to talk with and answer questions from a newbie Blogger at EU PVSEC last year.