Webinar: Opportunities in the Turbulent Photovoltaic Equipment Market

December 13, 2012

Description

In this webinar series brought to you by SEMI PV Group and Lux Research, we take a look at production equipment which is the backbone of the PV industry; and the pain the equipment sector is suffering because of overcapacity. The 2012 global capacity utilization is at 55% for crystalline silicon (x-Si) module production, 70% for cadmium telluride (CdTe) and 80% for copper indium gallium (di) selenide (CIGS). Under these market conditions there are almost no expected capacity expansions in the near term. The overcapacity has driven average selling price (ASP) for modules significantly lower, resulting in hyper competition in the PV industry, where almost all PV companies recognize the importance of product differentiation while still reducing costs. These market conditions present an opportunity for equipment manufacturers to differentiate their offerings through enabling lower production costs and higher efficiency cells and modules. In this webinar, Fatima Toor of Lux Research will discuss these factors now evident in this landscape:
  • Monocrystalline silicon (c-Si) ingot growth using Czochralski (CZ) pullers is too costly, wafer slicing wastes too much silicon, standard cell designs lose 10% to 12% of absolute efficiency from their highest efficiency potential and module manufacturing remains unnecessarily labor intensive. The opportunity for improvement is glaringly obvious in terms of manufacturing processes and equipment to improve cell efficiencies and reduce production costs.
  • Copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film technologies rely on custom equipment due to the importance of process parameters for each individual process step. However, equipment innovation will drive higher efficiencies and reduced production costs for these thin-film PV technologies.
  • Idle capacity within PV companies allows them to upgrade polysilicon, ingot, wafer, cell and module lines, assuming appropriate cash balances. These upgrades will enable long-term survival of the key PV industry manufacturers since they will be able to differentiate their products from standard offerings. Those that sit idle while their equipment idles are sealing their fate.