Printing Solar Profitability
By 3p Guest Author | September 27th, 2012
Dr. George Cellere, Applied Materials Solar installations are rocketing worldwide as solar electricity becomes cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels – it's already happened in 105 countries. This is the tipping point where economics takes over from altruism and solar PV becomes a serious part of the global energy mix.
The steady drop in cost-per-watt is great news for the end user and is enabled by simultaneous increases in cell efficiency and lower manufacturing costs.
If you're a cell manufacturer, though, dropping prices are a double-edged sword: strong demand is good, but you must continuously lower costs by improving your manufacturing processes in order to be profitable.
So, in a fiercely competitive industry, how is this done? A great example of how cell manufacturers can boost profitability is an emerging technique called "double printing." I first wrote about double printing three years ago, when the technique was in its infancy. Today, it's rapidly being adopted by cell manufacturers around the world.
More efficient cells are a good thing, naturally, as this histogram graphic shows. More efficient cells are worth more, and help a manufacturer stand out in a crowded marketplace. Changing the design of the cells to make them more efficient can yield immediate benefits, as long as implementing the change doesn't cost more than the extra revenue.
Repeatability is also a strong lever: every time you make a substandard cell, the bottom line suffers. After all, it costs the same to make a cell whether it works well or not. And obviously, minimizing the amount of raw material in each cell is... ( more at http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/09/printing-solar-profitability/ )
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