AVA Solar has a facility near the intersection of I-25 & Mulberry in Fort Collins, Colorado. I know, I dropped off my resume in person. First Solar has 6 production lines in operation right now producing 60MW of panels each year and an R&D line. They have another 8 lines under construction in Malaysia, scheduled to come online in 2008. They have ~$1.5 billion USD in back orders. With all 14 production lines running it would take 3-4 years to deliver. I've toured their plant in Perrysburg, Ohio and seen the two production lines in action. It takes 3 hours from the time the pre-coated (TiO2 = transparent conductor) pre-cut 2ft by 4ft soda-lime glass panels are off-loaded to the production line till the completed solar panel modules are boxed for shipment. Most of the line is automated with robots handling the panels at strategic points along the line, otherwise it's pretty much a conveyor belt type process. The lifespan to 80% of original output is warranted to be >20 years. The 2ft by 4ft panels produce between 65-75 Watts each at the year long RMS average peak solar intensity seen at 40 degrees N latitude. The panel/module sells for about $120-$180 each. The price per Watt includes the cost of reclaiming and recycling the old panels/modules. This is why First Solar sells only to large scale installations (i.e., solar farms). CdTe and CdS, the two compounds used to create the photo diode is a much more stable compound than metallic Cd with respect to toxicity. The panels have been exposed to fires up to 1100C for several hours with very little loss of Cd. Check the First Solar website for more info. This in combination with the recycling cost/program is why they can sell in Europe. Additionally, they have 4 manufacturing lines in a plant in Dresden, Germany. The draws about CdTe/CdS is that the effective adsorption spectra is nearly perfectly in sync with the solar spectra, it only takes several microns of the polycrystalline film to adsorb ~90% of the impinging light, it works better than CIGS, amorphous Si and Si in diffuse light, it can be easily created in a non-cleanroom environment and it takes much less active material (doesn't require a wafer of Electronics grade single crystal Si) to create. The biggest drawbacks to the efficiency is the ability to capture the photo ejected electrons before electron-hole recombination occurs, the transmission and anti-reflection efficiency of the glass and TiO2, and the effect of grain boundaries on electron mobility. This is where a lot of the research is taking place, to understand the complex/non-linear nature of manufacturing the polycrystalline film versus the process control knobs. There aren't any effective simulations/models of the chemo-physical process, nor of the degradation properties of the films. That's why the yield varies so much (65Watts-75Watts) panel to panel.
AVA Solar has a facility near the intersection of I-25 & Mulberry in Fort Collins, Colorado. I know, I dropped off my resume in person.
First Solar has 6 production lines in operation right now producing 60MW of panels each year and an R&D line. They have another 8 lines under construction in Malaysia, scheduled to come online in 2008. They have ~$1.5 billion USD in back orders. With all 14 production lines running it would take 3-4 years to deliver. I've toured their plant in Perrysburg, Ohio and seen the two production lines in action. It takes 3 hours from the time the pre-coated (TiO2 = transparent conductor) pre-cut 2ft by 4ft soda-lime glass panels are off-loaded to the production line till the completed solar panel modules are boxed for shipment. Most of the line is automated with robots handling the panels at strategic points along the line, otherwise it's pretty much a conveyor belt type process. The lifespan to 80% of original output is warranted to be >20 years. The 2ft by 4ft panels produce between 65-75 Watts each at the year long RMS average peak solar intensity seen at 40 degrees N latitude. The panel/module sells for about $120-$180 each. The price per Watt includes the cost of reclaiming and recycling the old panels/modules. This is why First Solar sells only to large scale installations (i.e., solar farms). CdTe and CdS, the two compounds used to create the photo diode is a much more stable compound than metallic Cd with respect to toxicity. The panels have been exposed to fires up to 1100C for several hours with very little loss of Cd. Check the First Solar website for more info. This in combination with the recycling cost/program is why they can sell in Europe. Additionally, they have 4 manufacturing lines in a plant in Dresden, Germany. The draws about CdTe/CdS is that the effective adsorption spectra is nearly perfectly in sync with the solar spectra, it only takes several microns of the polycrystalline film to adsorb ~90% of the impinging light, it works better than CIGS, amorphous Si and Si in diffuse light, it can be easily created in a non-cleanroom environment and it takes much less active material (doesn't require a wafer of Electronics grade single crystal Si) to create. The biggest drawbacks to the efficiency is the ability to capture the photo ejected electrons before electron-hole recombination occurs, the transmission and anti-reflection efficiency of the glass and TiO2, and the effect of grain boundaries on electron mobility. This is where a lot of the research is taking place, to understand the complex/non-linear nature of manufacturing the polycrystalline film versus the process control knobs. There aren't any effective simulations/models of the chemo-physical process, nor of the degradation properties of the films. That's why the yield varies so much (65Watts-75Watts) panel to panel.
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AVA Solar has a facility near the intersection of I-25 & Mulberry in Fort Collins, Colorado. I know, I dropped off my resume in person. First Solar has 6 production lines in operation right now producing 60MW of panels each year and an R&D line. They have another 8 lines under construction in Malaysia, scheduled to come online in 2008. They have ~$1.5 billion USD in back orders. With all 14 production lines running it would take 3-4 years to deliver. I've toured their plant in Perrysburg, Ohio and seen the two production lines in action. It takes 3 hours from the time the pre-coated (TiO2 = transparent conductor) pre-cut 2ft by 4ft soda-lime glass panels are off-loaded to the production line till the completed solar panel modules are boxed for shipment. Most of the line is automated with robots handling the panels at strategic points along the line, otherwise it's pretty much a conveyor belt type process. The lifespan to 80% of original output is warranted to be >20 years. The 2ft by 4ft panels produce between 65-75 Watts each at the year long RMS average peak solar intensity seen at 40 degrees N latitude. The panel/module sells for about $120-$180 each. The price per Watt includes the cost of reclaiming and recycling the old panels/modules. This is why First Solar sells only to large scale installations (i.e., solar farms). CdTe and CdS, the two compounds used to create the photo diode is a much more stable compound than metallic Cd with respect to toxicity. The panels have been exposed to fires up to 1100C for several hours with very little loss of Cd. Check the First Solar website for more info. This in combination with the recycling cost/program is why they can sell in Europe. Additionally, they have 4 manufacturing lines in a plant in Dresden, Germany. The draws about CdTe/CdS is that the effective adsorption spectra is nearly perfectly in sync with the solar spectra, it only takes several microns of the polycrystalline film to adsorb ~90% of the impinging light, it works better than CIGS, amorphous Si and Si in diffuse light, it can be easily created in a non-cleanroom environment and it takes much less active material (doesn't require a wafer of Electronics grade single crystal Si) to create. The biggest drawbacks to the efficiency is the ability to capture the photo ejected electrons before electron-hole recombination occurs, the transmission and anti-reflection efficiency of the glass and TiO2, and the effect of grain boundaries on electron mobility. This is where a lot of the research is taking place, to understand the complex/non-linear nature of manufacturing the polycrystalline film versus the process control knobs. There aren't any effective simulations/models of the chemo-physical process, nor of the degradation properties of the films. That's why the yield varies so much (65Watts-75Watts) panel to panel.
AVA Solar has a facility near the intersection of I-25 & Mulberry in Fort Collins, Colorado. I know, I dropped off my resume in person. First Solar has 6 production lines in operation right now producing 60MW of panels each year and an R&D line. They have another 8 lines under construction in Malaysia, scheduled to come online in 2008. They have ~$1.5 billion USD in back orders. With all 14 production lines running it would take 3-4 years to deliver. I've toured their plant in Perrysburg, Ohio and seen the two production lines in action. It takes 3 hours from the time the pre-coated (TiO2 = transparent conductor) pre-cut 2ft by 4ft soda-lime glass panels are off-loaded to the production line till the completed solar panel modules are boxed for shipment. Most of the line is automated with robots handling the panels at strategic points along the line, otherwise it's pretty much a conveyor belt type process. The lifespan to 80% of original output is warranted to be >20 years. The 2ft by 4ft panels produce between 65-75 Watts each at the year long RMS average peak solar intensity seen at 40 degrees N latitude. The panel/module sells for about $120-$180 each. The price per Watt includes the cost of reclaiming and recycling the old panels/modules. This is why First Solar sells only to large scale installations (i.e., solar farms). CdTe and CdS, the two compounds used to create the photo diode is a much more stable compound than metallic Cd with respect to toxicity. The panels have been exposed to fires up to 1100C for several hours with very little loss of Cd. Check the First Solar website for more info. This in combination with the recycling cost/program is why they can sell in Europe. Additionally, they have 4 manufacturing lines in a plant in Dresden, Germany. The draws about CdTe/CdS is that the effective adsorption spectra is nearly perfectly in sync with the solar spectra, it only takes several microns of the polycrystalline film to adsorb ~90% of the impinging light, it works better than CIGS, amorphous Si and Si in diffuse light, it can be easily created in a non-cleanroom environment and it takes much less active material (doesn't require a wafer of Electronics grade single crystal Si) to create. The biggest drawbacks to the efficiency is the ability to capture the photo ejected electrons before electron-hole recombination occurs, the transmission and anti-reflection efficiency of the glass and TiO2, and the effect of grain boundaries on electron mobility. This is where a lot of the research is taking place, to understand the complex/non-linear nature of manufacturing the polycrystalline film versus the process control knobs. There aren't any effective simulations/models of the chemo-physical process, nor of the degradation properties of the films. That's why the yield varies so much (65Watts-75Watts) panel to panel.