Analysis of the development of China thin-film cells and CIGS thin-film cells 2009

• Publication date: June 2009
• Report size: 37 pages

In 2008, the global output of photovoltaic cells was 6.4GW, a year-on-year increase of 60%, maintaining a long trend of high growth, while China seems to have become the world's largest photovoltaic cells producer. The output in mainland China to occupy 30 percent of global production and Taiwan accounts for 10% of total output. Among the world top 25 PV companies in 2008, China accounted for 8 with total output of 1821MW and Taiwan accounted for...

In 2008, the global output of photovoltaic cells was 6.4GW, a year-on-year increase of 60%, maintaining a long trend of high growth, while China seems to have become the world's largest photovoltaic cells producer. The output in mainland China to occupy 30 percent of global production and Taiwan accounts for 10% of total output. Among the world top 25 PV companies in 2008, China accounted for 8 with total output of 1821MW and Taiwan accounted for 3 with the total output of 723.5MW.

In 2008, the global output of thin-film solar cells was 892MW, a year-on-year growth rate of 120% for two consecutive years, accounting for 15% of total solar cell output.

The future development trend of Photovoltaic cells is that the crystalline silicon cell will still in a dominant position in the near future in terms of the continuous improvement process of technology and the continuing decline of cost. And due to the low-cost and conversion efficiency is still have room for improvement of thin film coating battery, thus, the future market share will be have a significant growth. In terms of the market circumstance, the CIGS thin-film battery will be the fastest growth one of thin-film cell in the future.

CIGS thin-film battery has a cost advantage compared with crystalline silicon cells, CIGS cells using low-cost glass as substrate, sputtering technology is the major technology and the wastage of Cu, In, Ga, Al, Zn is very little. For the large-scale industrial production, if able to maintain relatively high efficiency of the battery, the cost of battery (per-watt) is much lower than single crystal silicon and polycrystalline silicon cells.

In terms of the scarcity of raw materials, the shortage of Indium will be the major matter for the long term development of the CIGS thin film cells. But, in fact, in a short term, the scarcity of Indium does not constitute an obstacle to the development of CIGS thin-film battery.

Indium is a rare silver-white metal, does not have an independent mineral, widely distributed in the sphalerite. China reserves approximately 13,000 tons, accounting for 2/3 of the world's reserves. In addition to China, the United States, Canada and Japan are the major producers. Presently, the majority of China’s indium export to Japan and South Korea, only a small amount consumed in domestic market. In terms of the special nature and rarity of indium, since June 2007 China has started the implementation of the export quota system of Indium, in 2008, China produced a total of 215 tons of indium ingot.

Battery Industry in China

Contents

1 Overview of thin-film battery industry
1.1 Category of PV cells
1.2 Classification and characteristics of thin-film batteries
1.3 Development of global thin-film battery

2 Cost of thin-film battery

3 The raw materials of thin-film battery in China
3.1 Conductive glass
3.2 Conductive glass suppliers
3.3 photovoltaic glass - substrate deposition and components packaging
3.4 EVA film
3.5 Special gas
3.6 coating target

4 Performance of 2008

5 Overview of CIGS thin-film battery
5.1 Cost of CIGS thin-film battery
5.1.1 The cost constitute of CIGS thin-film battery
5.1.2 Cost of power plant with different cell components
5.1.3 Cost of electricity of thin-film battery of photovoltaic power plant
5.2 The advantages of CIGS thin-film battery
5.2.1 The low-cost
5.2.2 High conversion efficiency
5.2.3 Stable performance and no fall off
5.2.4 The most suitable for BIPV applications
5.3 Possibility of problems
5.3.1 The scarcity of indium
5.4 Future demands


Figure
PV cells Classification
The global output and growth of thin-film and crystalline silicon cells 2002-2008
Category of thin film batteries
Production of various types of thin-film battery
The proportion of variety of commercialization PV cells 1990-2007
Conversion efficiency of the variety of thin-film battery
Forecast of the global PV market constitute 2012
First Solar’s conversion efficiency and its cost changes
The decreasing cost of Non-/ microcrystalline silicon
The forecast of cost and conversion efficiency of thin-film battery
Constitute of variety of thin-film batteries
The global production and year-on-year growth of photovoltaic cells
The output of the world’s top 25 battery manufacturers 2008
The world's cumulative installed capacity of photovoltaic cells and the newly installed capacity
The output and year-on-year growth of thin film battery
The cost constitute of First Solar's CdTe thin-film battery
The cost constitute of CGIS thin film battery measured by assumed conditions
Comparison of the absorption coefficient between CGIS and other solar batteries’ materials

Table
The world's top 10 film battery manufacturers
Distribution of the global photovoltaic cells producers
Comparison of three types of thin-film battery
The major Global CIGS thin-film battery manufacturers
Comparison of under the same generated power that various batteries require battery size
The different cost of various batteries with 10MW photovoltaic power plant
The different cost constitute of various batteries with 10MW photovoltaic power
the assumed condition for cost estimation
Annual electricity cost
the national average in different power generation system
The cost/KWH of national annual average number of utilization hours with different generating systems
The maximum efficiency of all kinds of Cd-free buffer layer CIGS solar cells and research institutions