Perovskite solar production

Prominent U.S solar panel maker, First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), is reportedly building a new research and development (R&D) innovation center in Lake Township, Ohio, believed to be the largest facility of its kind in the Western Hemisphere - The Jim Nolan Center for Solar Innovation. The new center is part of an approximately half-billion dollar investment by First Solar in R&D infrastructure, and the company expects to also commission a perovskite development line at its Perrysburg, Ohio, campus in the second half of 2024. 

The facility covers 1.3 million square feet and includes a high-tech pilot manufacturing line allowing for the production of full-sized prototypes of thin film and tandem PV modules. Prior to the commissioning of the Jim Nolan Center, First Solar utilized a manufacturing line at its Perrysburg facility for its late-stage product development efforts. This arrangement limited the flexibility for development efforts and created constraints when mission-critical tools had to go offline. By resolving these limitations and constraints, the new facility is expected to accelerate innovation cycles.

INFICON has almost six decades of thin film experience in maximizing productivity and yield in manufacturing photovoltaic products. Continuous deposition control can be used to maximize reproducibility and uniformity by monitoring and controlling accumulated thickness in-situ and in real time, providing the best measurement resolution that does not require frequent venting. For heterojuntion (HJT) solar cells, perovskite solar cells, and thin film panel manufacturing, INFICON provides market-leading thin film deposition controllers and monitors, including Cygnus® 2.

The Best Measurement Precision Possible

Cygnus 2 is a high-resolution controller capable of controlling six independent rates as low as 0.1 Å/s, typical of advanced solar cell manufacturing processes. This is especially useful in the OLED and solar markets as it eliminates the need for multiple controllers for tools with multiple sources. Instead of having six different deposition controllers for each chamber, one Cygnus 2 can control all six sources independently, simultaneously, or in any combination that is desired to minimize integration cost. 

It was reported that Renshine Solar will open a gigawatt-scale perovskite PV module factory in Jiangsu province, with a planned investment of CNY 1 billion ($138 million). 

The CNY 1 billion gigawatt-scale perovskite cell project will be located in the Economic and Technological Development Zone (ETDZ) in Changshu, Jiangsu province, China. The Company started operating a 150 MW production line for perovskite modules in January. It has since claimed that its commercial modules have achieved a power conversion efficiency of 18.4%.

It was reported that about a week ago, Kunshan GCL Optoelectronic Material launched the first phase of a photovoltaic energy storage equipment production project was launched, backed by a total investment of Yuan 570 million (over USD$80 million).

The project is undertaken by Kunshan High-Tech Group, which is responsible for the customized construction of a high standard factory area for the 1 GW production project of perovskite photovoltaic modules for enterprises. 

Toray Engineering says that it will ship large size slot-die coaters for an upcoming Gigawatt scale (GW) perovskite production line. The first shipment is scheduled in the second quarter of 2024.

This upcoming production line will be the world’s largest perovskite PV production line, with a glass size of over 2 meters in size. Toray plans to ship multiple large-scale (over 2 meter) slot-die coaters in 2024 for perovskite production.

Toray Engineering’s slot-die coaters have already been used worldwide in perovskite coating processes in several installations. The company reports that market and customer demand is on the rise, and several companies are planning to construct large-area perovskite production lines, with glasses over 2.4 meters in size. Toray Engineering has produced and sold over 800 large-size slot-die coater systems, and is the only company that has successfully produced and shipped large slot-die coaters.

It was reported that solar production equipment maker Maxwell recently held the groundbreaking ceremony for its HJT perovskite tandem cell equipment facility, located in Wujiang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. 

The company is investing about RMB 5.4 billion ($750.16 million) in the facility focused on research and manufacturing of next-generation HJT perovskite tandem cells. The construction is scheduled to be completed within 2 years.

U.S-based University of Vermont spinoff, Verde Technologies, has reported progress with its thin film coating technology in a pilot with contract manufacturer Verico Technology, demonstrating that its coating processes are transferable to existing commercial roll-to-roll manufacturing lines.

The companies completed the deposition of perovskite solution on a flexible substrate measuring 76.2 cm x 6,096 cm using standard manufacturing processes, equipment, and environmental conditions. The novel coating tool and process received the name Verde Slot Coating.

Reports suggest that Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Denisa Sakova, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan's Sekisui Chemical.

Sekisui Chemical is designing lightweight perovskite solar technology and aims to commercialize its flexible panels in 2025. “We are interested not only in working together on the expansion of this technology in Slovakia, but at the same time we also want to explore the possibilities of locating the production of such panels in our country,” said Sakova.

Shenzhen Hiking PV has announced plans to set up a joint venture with a state-run investment company to build gigawatt-level perovskite/polysilicon tandem cell and panel production lines in a new factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, China. 

The factory is planned to have a total capacity of 7 GW of perovskite/polysilicon tandem cells, with an investment of CNY 5 billion (around USD$700 million). The plan is to build the plant in three phases.

Switzerland-based Perovskia recently announced it is establishing a factory in Aubonne, Switzerland, to produce a million custom-designed perovskite devices annually. 

Perovskia is a spinoff of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA). It was founded to develop the market for customized perovskite solar devices as battery replacements.