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Thin Film Technologies Go Mainstream

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EPIA and thin film outcomes
With ramped-up production capacities, Thin Films show great potential for large-scale projects and buildings. Their bankability is now better ensured and with prices continuously dropping, the technology is definitely becoming mainstream. Whatever the technology, appropriate regulatory frameworks are now crucial in ensuring an effective integration of photovoltaic (PV) electricity to the grid. These were the main conclusions of the 3rd EPIA International Thin Film Conference, held in Munich, Germany.

The Thin Film market grew from 1.3 GW in 2009 to over 2 GW in 2010. This impressive 50% growth shows the capability of the Thin Film industry to increase production towards large scales. CdTe remains the leading Thin Film technology representing over 90% of the Thin Film segment. CIGS and silicon-based Thin Films, with recent expansion plans, are also about to enter mass production which will further increase their competitiveness.

With ramped-up capacities, many large-scale projects are being developed all across Europe. Thin Film applications also demonstrate a unique potential for Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) - an important market segment which can now develop professionally with adapted Thin Film products. "Buildings represent a great potential for the deployment of Thin Films" explained Dr. Winfried Hoffmann, Vice-President of the EPIA. "In addition to considering the price/m2 rather than the price/Wp, their multi-functional capabilities bring many other benefits to buildings such as shading, insulation… They have a great future for decentralised customer-driven solutions" he added.

Most of the technological challenges have been solved from the technology point of view however, in the current economical environment, access to funds presents deployment obstacles in terms of power plant bankability. But while in the past Thin Film companies have been struggling to make their products bankable, recently it seems that they have found ways to achieve this. Investors and bankers investing in PV are generally risk-averse towards less proven investment areas.

"One way to make certain new technologies more bankable is to make them part of larger projects using other proven and mature technologies. A share of 10 to 15% with the most innovative technology could be considered acceptable by investors as the overall risk of the project will be diminished and the technology then proven" explained Manfred Bächler, CTO of Phoenix Solar. "It is basically following investors' common sense "not to put all your eggs in one basket". Such an approach to diversifying the portfolio of PV projects by including different technologies in the portfolio has proven its potential to make certain technologies more and more bankable so that project developers and investors have also become more technology-agnostic. Each project is assessed on the basis of the product, the supplier, the market conditions, the financing structure, etc. "What matters in the end is the Return on Investment and this does not depend only on the technology" he concluded.

Thin Film prices keep decreasing over time with an Average Selling Price of modules of $1.65/Wp in 2009 and $1.35/Wp in 2010. And there are still many areas where the cost of Thin Films can be significantly reduced. 50% of Thin Films costs come from materials, from which 40% is for the glass. The glass industry has already made great efforts to make glass thinner to decrease weight and cost. Specialty glass products designed for PV are being developed with low iron, high transmittance and resistivity, helping improve the efficiency and the durability of modules. In order to reduce the transportation of glass, which accounts for a large part of its costs, co-location of glass plants is also being evaluated as it did happen in the Flat Panel display industry.

In the near future, large PV clusters in the GWs range would be the most economical solution in terms of logistics and transportation.
Efficient grid regulations needed for increased PV deployment

Apart from the technologies, grid integration will be one of the main challenges of the PV industry. The more the generation is close to the point of consumption, the less the network risks congestion. But this requires the implementation of efficient regulations and mandatory priority access for renewables. Smart grids, defined as "electricity networks that can intelligently integrate the behaviours and actions of all users connected to it -generators, consumers and those that do both- in order to efficiently ensure sustainable, economic and secure electricity supply" will also be needed, so that together with the emergence of economically affordable storage solutions, high penetrations of PV electricity in the overall electrical system will be enabled.
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