1366 Technologies
Target: Silicon Wafer Manufacturing, Expense
For all the hype over thin-film's future dominance of the solar industry, crystalline-silicon technologies still account for 80% of the global market.
Silicon's everywhere - it's the second most common element in the earth's crust and is found in everything from iPhones to your favorite lager. But when refined into hyper-pure silicon, necessary for wafer manufacturing, it costs around $350 per kilogram.
In North Lexington, Mass., cleantech innovator 1366 Technologies is planning to slash that expense for module manufacturers through its Direct Wafer manufacturing process.
Besides attracting $3 million from Sunshot and $4 million from Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), 1366 has secured backing from GE, VantagePoint Venture Partners and Hanwha Chemical. In total, $46 million is being committed to help commercialize Direct Wafer technology.
Co-founder van Mierlo likens the manufacturing breakthrough to the Bessemer process, the steel mass production process that was the foundation for the Carnegie fortune. Direct Wafer reduces wafer production steps from four to one by fashioning wafers directly from molten silicon. The process eliminates silicon waste by negating the need for sawing and grinding hardened silicon.
Relative to legacy technology, Direct Wafer is thousands of times faster post-melt, four times more capital efficient and uses just half the amount of silicon. "We eliminate the waste and we streamline the product," says van Mierlo. "That's where we get our cost savings."
To meet SunShot's goals, 1366 is trying to bring down the cost of silicon wafers from $1 per watt today to 25 cents. "You never know until the factory's built, but from a technical viewpoint, we've met that goal," he says.
As soon as 1366 completes engineering and construction of its high speed manufacturing machine, it will break ground on a 100 MW demonstration plant - by as early as year's end. The plan is to scale up to a gigawatt plant. "Everything we see now leads me to believe we can do this," he says.
3M
Target: Thin-Film Installation Costs, Versatility
A number of roofing companies now partner with installers to provide building integrated PV (BIPV) systems that low-lying, lightweight, non-penetrating and - depending on your preferences - more physically attractive. Copper-indium gallium (di) selenide (CIGS) thin-film technology is on the cutting edge of this expanding niche market.
In the past, CIGS module manufacturers trying to tailor a product to the BIPV market have been restricted by the limited availability of flexible polymer encapsulants, used in lieu of conventional rigid glass encapsulants. No manufacturer has mass-produced a proven polymer based product for CIGS panels - anything that's made its way onto a rooftop came off a pilot manufacturing line.
Now, propped up by $4.4 million in SunShot funding, 3M is planning to scale up and fill that hole. The Minnesota-based company is on schedule to begin mass production of a multi-layer, fluoropolymer-based encapsulant early next year, leading the thin-film industry's shift toward versatile, flexible modules.
"3M has been working on this for over a decade," says Arnie Funkenbusch, thin-film solar program manager. "But it's only recently that we've begun to focus on the solar application." For years, 3M's flexible polymer films have been used in organic light emitting diodide displays, found on cell phones and other hand-held electronic devices. In adapting its film for the solar industry, 3M has laser-focused its research on improving weatherability. "Unlike with electronics, in a solar application our film is subject to sunlight and temperature extremes," he adds.
Manufacturing of a first-generation film, Ultra Barrier Solar Film, is underway at a pilot line in Minnesota, and what's been produced to date has been sold to CIGS module manufacturers. The final product will be tweaked slightly, Funkenbusch says, as accelerated life-time testing is still underway at National Renewable Energy Labs.
