Abstract
The driving force for TFPV product development is improvements in energy
conversion efficiency and this is largely a materials issue. This new report
analyzes the market for materials used in thin-film and organic photovoltaics.
The PV technologies covered in this study include amorphous silicon, CIS/CIGS,
cadmium telluride, dye cells and "pure" organic approaches and for each of
these approaches we provide an in-depth review of the advantages,
disadvantages, research directions, and manufacturability associated with
these materials.
For each type of PV covered we look at the market opportunities for the
feedstock materials used in the photoactive layer, whether they are the silane
gas used for amorphous silicon or the organic dyes used in dye cells. We also
examine some of the further out possibilities for making PV cells; nanosilicon
inks, CIGS nanocrystals and silicon slivers, for example. This report takes a
look at when and if such technology platforms will lead to improved price
performance ratios.
The report also reviews the requirements of emerging production processes on
materials requirements. We examine the new forms of manufacturing from
specialized forms of vacuum deposition to flexo printing. These new production
modes will require not so much different kinds of materials as new
formulations. The art of PV ink making, for example, is only just being
understood. And various commercial firms and university departments are
seeking out improved ways of depositing organic materials for OPV and organic
electronics more generally; the challenge here being to create processes that
do not thermally destroy the materials while the deposit them. What materials
will have to be made into inks? Where is sputtering and vapor deposition seen
as useful approaches to manufacturing?
But this report goes well beyond a discussion of the photoactive materials and
includes a discussion of the metallic and transparent conductors used in
thin-film PV, as well as substrates and other related materials such as
barrier coatings and encapsulation materials. The manufacturers of various
forms of transparent conductors that are widely used in top contacts should be
interested in what is going on in TFPV, which increasingly represents a volume
opportunity for the materials they have to offer. Yet another important
materials market derived from the TFPV industry is in coatings and other
materials designed to weatherproof the solar panels as much as possible. This
area has assumed enormous importance in the OPV sector, because of the
vulnerability of OPV to oxygen and water vapor. Then there are the substrates
themselves. Traditional PV, including a-Si TFPV, makes regular use of glass
substrates. Indeed, until very recently there were really few substitutes.
However, this has changed in the past eighteen months of so and a hot button
item for TFPV has become the issue of flexible substrates.
The materials strategies of solar panel makers have implications at every
level of the value chain. This is because different materials supply
structures have evolved to supply each kind of thin-film PV. If one considers
the a-Si sector, for example, there is already a well established supply chain
in this part of the TF PV business and at the materials levels the firms that
stand to lose or gain are frequently large silane gas feedstock suppliers for
photovoltaic applications. If one looks at the organic PV segment there is a
quite different group of firms making the required materials and a fuzzy line
between the manufacturers of the materials and of the cell arrays themselves.
And then there is the growing issue of environmental friendliness. If TFPV is
part of our effort to "save the planet," it surely shouldn' t use
environmentally unfriendly materials in the process. And in this report we
review the environmental issues surrounding all of the major photoactive
materials discussed in this report. Finally, in addition to technical and
materials market analysis, this report includes profiles of major firms
involved in developing and manufacturing thin film/organic photovoltaics
materials, as well as detailed eight-year forecasts of the materials markets
in value and volume terms with break outs by application and materials.
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