Korea’s largest thin-film solar cell factory is set to be built by Hyundai Heavy is joining forces with and France’s Saint-Gobain. Under the contract, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Saint-Gobain will each invest 50% of the 220 billion won solar cell factory. Construction will start from December 2010 and is scheduled to be completed by the first half of 2012.
Hyundai Heavy held a signing ceremony for the construction contract in Paris
Upon completion, the solar cell factory will have an annual production capacity of 100MW CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, selenide) solar cells. The new plant will make Hyundai Heavy the sole Korean company that can produce both thin-film and crystalline solar cells.
Saint-Gobain,a glass and construction material producer, will provide glass for the production of CIGS solar cells. Saint-Gobain is now producing the most efficient thin-film solar cells, which are the fruit of its 30 year-long research and development.
The contract is meaningful in the fact that Hyundai Heavy can advance mass production of thin-film solar cell in Korea and preoccupy the next generation photovoltaic market in cooperation with Saint-Gobain.
Hyundai Heavy is the sole Korean company with an integrated solar power production system manufacturing a full range of solar power products such as polysilicon, ingot/wafer, solar cell, solar module and solar power system.
It is great news. Maybe they should be using other solar than thin-film. On the other hand, thin-film is lightweight
That is major news on the manufacturing front, but one has to wonder how long thin cell is going to be relevant. Personally, I believe we are on the edge of a period of rapid technological development that will see solar power platforms evolve dramatically in the next 10 years. It would appear Saint-Goban and Hyundai feel differently.