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Bekaert inaugurates world's largest thin-film
factory
United Solar Systems Corp. has
opened a 30 MW triple-junction amorphous silicon factory at its
Bekaert ECD Solar Systems LLC (BESS) facility in Auburn Hills,
Michigan.
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© Bekaert ECD Solar
Systems LLC |
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Ribbon-cutting line for the 30 MW line: From left to
right are ECD-founders Iris and Stan Ovshinsky, Guy
Haemers (BESS), Subhendu Guha (Uni-Solar), Congressman
Joe Knollenberg, and Nancy Bacon (ECD). |
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The 15,000 m2 building,
inaugurated on June 24, is containing the world's largest thin-film
solar cell manufacturing machine and assembly equipment. United Solar
is a joint venture between Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (ECD) and
N.V. Bekaert S.A.
Original plans called for a capacity of 25 MW.
»But
with all the improvements we have put in,«
says Subhendu Guha, president of United Solar and BESS,
»we
believe it's going to be capable of producing 30 MW.«
Guha declined to give specifics on targets for ramping up production:
»I
don't want to show my hand.«
He would only say that the factory will make limited shipments this
year and »go
full blast next year,«
depending on the needs of the sales and marketing department. Guha
says that »almost all« of the production-line bugs related to yield
have been solved. He hopes to increase the current aperture efficiency
from 7.5 to 8.5 percent.
Most of the manufacturing equipment was designed and built by ECD at a
cost of $55 million. The roll-to-roll line can take six rolls of
stainless steel, each 35.6 cm wide and 2.4 km long, and produce 14.4
km of triple-junction cells in three days, says Guha.
United Solar has a 5 MW a-Si factory about 20 km away in Troy,
Michigan, and a 4-to-5 MW module factory in Mexico. Guy Haemers,
chairman and CEO of BESS and corporate vice president of N.V. Bekaert,
says the company is looking to increase sales to Europe. »We expect to
get a larger share of the market with the commissioning of [the Auburn
Hills] plant.« However, Guha says no decision has been made so far of
whether to go with a module factory in Spain (see PI 5/2002, p. 12).
William P.
Hirshman
© PHOTON International, August 2002
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