From pv publication 02/24
While specific solar production actions are determined in nanometers, atomic layers, and portions of a portion or cent, ingot and wafer production more carefully lookslike heavy market. Gleaming crystalline silicon ingots emerge from towering pullers to be sliced by diamond wire saws into rainbowlike, black square, or rectangle-shaped, monocrystalline wafers.
The ingot and wafering production actions are power starving and produce waste in the type of kerf slurry – the residue ingot product from inbetween the sliced wafers. Those are the PV production actions alotof extremely focused in China.
Jessica Jin is the principal researchstudy expert for solar and tidy energy innovation at S&P Global Commodity Insights Shanghai. Jin reported that in 2023, China accounted for 96% of international ingot and wafer production. She included that the wholesale switch within PV production from multicrystalline to monocrystalline innovation, in and around 2018, was definitive for China’s supremacy of the production action. That supremacy hasactually extended upstream.
“This was led by Longi, as everybody understands,” she stated. “Since then, Chinese devices makers working with Longi keep enhancing their innovation and likewise include capability and they all grow up with the market growth in China.”
The advancement is one that is typical throughout China’s solar success story. Through aggressive scaling and close cooperation with innovation and product providers, Chinese producers haveactually been able to quickly adjust brand-new innovation and production procedures, outcompeting European and American competitors veryfirst on expense, and then on efficiency and performance.
“Nowadays, we see most of these devices providers are likewise in China as well,” stated Jin. The outcome being that in 2024 there are coupleof trustworthy paths for non-Chinese makers interested in establishing ingot and wafer capability.
European problems
PV production advisory Exawatt, now a part of CRU Group, discovers that the just significant ingot and wafer production center exterior of China is in South East Asia. Exawatt tallied some 35 GW of wafer centers in operation in South East Asia by the end of 2023, with that possibly broadening to 45 GW by the end of 2024.
While growths are under method in South East Asia, the opposite is the case in Europe. The year 2023 saw both Norsun and Norwegian Crystal suspend or wind up their operations in Europe – successfully decreasing wafer production in Europe to no. Those choices were followed quickly after by that of, probably, a secret provider. Polysilicon manufacturer REC Solar Norway started winding up its operations in Kristiansand, Norway – which had an yearly output of 8,000 lots – and in Heroya, Norway – with 5,500 loads – in November 2023.
Norwegian Crystal had closed its 500 MW ingot center in Glomfjord, Norway, a month earlier. As justrecently as 2022, it hadactually been pursuing prepares to establish a 6 GW ingot and wafer center however hadactually been notable to protected financing, requiring it to start liquidation of the business.
In September, compatriot Norsun revealed layoffs and a production stop at its 1 GW center in Årdal, Norway. Tellingly, Norsun is now attempting to develop a 5 GW ingot and wafer production center in the United States. In August 2023, it revealed it had raised NOK90 million ($8.5 million) in capital in pursuit of the strategy, alongwith the ?%AIRCONDITIONER53.6 million ($58 million) it was granted by the European Union Innovation Fund.
States possible
Subsidies are readilyavailable for solar makers in Europe however they pale in contrast to what is on deal in the United States. In the veryfirst 12 months after the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law, statements were made amountingto 155 GW of yearly solar production capability, right throughout the worth chain, according to trade body the Solar Energy Industries Association. However, coupleof were for ingot and wafer production.
“According to our design, the reward is really really great for production in the United States,” stated S&P Global’s Jin. “But it’s not merely about the production expense however likewise other expenses, like the recycling, building expense, and so on.”
Jin stated that protecting ecological approvals for wafer operations might show tough outdoors of China. Although she did note that in the past 5 years, numerous of the waste and recycling problems from wafer production haveactually been dealtwith.
South Korean module maker Qcells stands out as an exception. In January 2024, Qcells revealed a $2.5 billion financialinvestment choice which consistedof 3.3 GW of yearly ingot, wafer, and cell production capability, to be carriedout in phases. The production will include the facility of a brand-new production base, in Cartersville, Georgia – outdoors of the city of Atlanta in the United States. It follows the growth of Qcells’ module assembly operations, to 5.1 GW capability, in Dalton, Georgia, in the United States, compl