Super Large Scale Manufacturing of Thin-film PV Modules

摘要

We have studied the design for a "Solar City" factory that will produce 2- 3.5 GWp of thin film solar panels per year-100x the volume of a typical, thin-film, solar panel manufacturer in 2003, and more than 4x the volume of the entire solar panel industry in 2003. With a reasonable selection of materials, and conservative assumptions, this "Solar City" factory can attain a price target of $1.00 per watt as the total price for a complete, installed solar energy system. This breakthrough in the price of solar energy comes without the need for any significant new innovation. It comes entirely from the design of a very large, dedicated and optimized factory, the design of manufacturing equipment for a very large factory and the cost savings resulting from operating at such a large manufacturing scale.