First Solar, the world’s largest cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar panel manufacturer, has a new competitive neighbor in Northwest Ohio: Toledo Solar has set up in the former Willard & Kelsey Solar Group building in Perrysburg, Ohio, to manufacture CdTe panels for the residential and commercial solar markets.
First Solar Series 4 modules atop the Toledo Museum of Art. These CdTe modules are of similar size and power output as the new offering from Toledo Solar. Credit: Solar Power World
Atlas Venture Group (parent company of Toledo Solar) acquired the assets of Willard & Kelsey Solar Group in 2019, after working with the Ohio Federal Research Network and the University of Toledo to evaluate the equipment and technology at the Perrysburg location. Willard & Kelsey formed in 2007 as a CdTe manufacturer, and its founders had ties with the early days of nearby First Solar. Willard & Kelsey shuttered in 2013 without turning a profit.
Toledo Solar should begin shipping the non-utility-scale solar panels in June. The company claims to have more than $800 million in purchase orders already. Production has already begun at the plant with an estimated 100 MW of annual capacity and 25 current employees. Company reps said the employee force should expand to 70 by year’s end. By 2026, Toledo Solar expects to be producing 850 MW of panels annually, the company said in a press release.
While First Solar primarily serves the utility-scale solar market with its CdTe panels, Toledo Solar will focus on the residential and commercial markets.
A large-scale installation of First Solar Series 4 modules (which are of similar size and output as Toledo Solar’s offering).
“The timing is right to launch this solar venture. Reliable CdTe solar manufacturing was born here in Toledo Ohio. Solar Cells Inc. and their partners at the University of Toledo created CdTe solar films in the 1990s. The technology was then successfully commercialized by industry leader First Solar,” said Toledo Solar’s Chief Technology Officer Dr. Alvin Compaan. “With several decades of collective experience in CdTe, a well-developed supply chain combined with the region’s rich knowledge of CdTe thin film manufacturing, we could not be situated better geographically.”
Thin-film solar panels have better resistance to shading and lower degradation rates than traditional crystalline-silicon, but thin-film panels often have less power and less efficiency. One needs more thin-film panels to produce the same power as crystalline-silicon in a smaller area. That is the primary reason why thin-film has not taken off in non-utility markets. Read more about thin-film here.
Toledo Solar is offering an industry standard 25-year warranty for its all-glass, frameless CdTe modules. The “TS 115” panels are 60 x 120 cm and assumed to produce 115 W (same size and power as First Solar’s Series 4 modules).
I agree they cannot compete with the mono-crystalline panels I buy….bang for the buck. I get 400 watt panels for 58 cents/watt and I deal with old retired people like me living in far west Texas off
grid. They are on severely restricted income so solar power has to be very cost effective for them.
I custom build battery banks and charge controllers for them tailored to their specific needs.
Agreed SolarMan. As a solar / wind professional for 25 years, I’ve seen many, many of these thin film companies make these big promises, and they’ve all gone under (except for First Solar – who has been fortunate enough to have some super salesmen to help them corner some of the big industrial jobs in the country…).
I’m getting top tier 1 modules right now for under $0.50 per watt. Good luck with them competing with those prices (and like you said, performance / square foot = efficiency).
“Toledo Solar is offering an industry standard 25-year warranty for its all-glass, frameless CdTe modules. The “TS 115” panels are 60 x 120 cm and assumed to produce 115 W (same size and power as First Solar’s Series 4 modules).”
They’re going to have to come up with an excellent price per watt for anyone thinking of solar PV. These 4 foot by almost 2 foot panel foot print when compared to mono crystalline solar PV panels at a average of 330 watts per panel and pricing around $0.80/watt, Toledo Solar will not compete successfully with mono crystalline solar PV. Take a 400 square foot roof space. With Toledo Solar, you have 50 panels at 115 watts/panel. You get a (maximum) of 5750 watts with CdTe. With typical 18 square foot mono crystalline solar PV panels at 330 watts/panel, you are getting 22 panels in 400 square feet at 7260 watts. Bang for the buck, 7.3kWp as opposed to 5.8kWp in the same space. It makes a big difference over 20 to 30 years of use. The industry hasn’t witnessed the effect on the solar PV panel pricing until large scale manufacturing of bifacial solar PV panels hit the marketplace. I’m seeing 10 year old solar PV panel technology as something that will fail to launch and another Solyndra experiment will have failed. The way the regulatory factor is changing to RSD per panel, 50 RSD devices would cost a lot more than 22 RSD devices, just sayin’.