CSP to Acquire ThinSilicon as Part of Expansion Drive
China Solar Power has acquired ThinSilicon Inc., a thin-film manufacturing process technology firm based in Mountain View, Calif. CSP is building and planning several module facilities in China, working with municipalities on planning and financing.
Staff -- PV Society, 11/10/2009
China Solar Power Ltd. (CSP, Hong Kong), which manufactures thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si) photovoltaic modules, said it has purchased ThinSilicon Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.), a developer of thin-film manufacturing process technology.
ThinSilicon — founded in 2007 by three materials scientists who met while studying for their doctorates at Stanford University — develops single- and tandem-junction a-Si PV module manufacturing process technology. The company said it recently achieved a tandem-junction cell efficiency >12.5%, or ~9% at the G5 module level.
Jason Stephens, a co-founder and principal scientist of ThinSilicon, said being part of CSP will "accelerate the commercialization of our proprietary process and device technology."
CSP recently started operations at its first manufacturing facility in Yantai, China, producing a-Si panels with production equipment supplied by Ulvac Inc. (Chigasaki, Japan). The Yantai fab will have an annual capacity of ~32 MW at full production, expected next year. CSP has broken ground on its second facility in Jiangyin, China, and has agreements with two other Chinese municipalities to build and operate solar module facilities. The deals will give CSP an annual production capacity >500 MW, which the company said will make it "by far China's largest manufacturer of thin-film PV modules."
Charles Johnson, CSP's co-founder and the former co-president of Franklin Templeton Investments, said CSP's mission is to become a global, low-cost manufacturer of thin-film PV modules. "The environmental benefits of thin-film technology over traditional mono and polycrystalline silicon are well documented," he said. "The acquisition of ThinSilicon will help position us as China's lowest-cost manufacturer of PV modules, in addition to having the lowest carbon footprint per megawatt of any PV module manufacturer in China."
According to CSP, industry analysts estimate that thin-film technology will increase from ~10% of capacity in 2008 to 20-25% of the global PV market within the next three to five years.
