Efficiency improvement remains key, MWT technology ready to take market

TAIWAN: According to EnergyTrend, a research division of TrendForce, solar cell and module manufacturers will be more active in improving product efficiency under the pressure of both installation costs and subsidy cut.

As for new technologies, MWT technology has been generally appreciated by related industries; it is possible that the mass production stage takes place in 2013.

Related industries indicated that the competition between Taiwanese manufacturers and Chinese manufacturers on solar cell production has been incessant. Currently the mainstream technology among the industry is mostly covered by Double Printing and Selective Emitter.

The market has demanded, however, that the cost of power generation per watt be reduced, and the improvement in efficiency supported by the present mainstream technology may not be able to meet the needs of the market. Therefore, related industries have started to act more aggressively in the estimation and import of new technologies. They indicated that among many proposals, MWT technology stands out because it creates only a very low degree of interference in the existing manufacturing process, and changes in the production line would only include the increase of single station equipment.

Moreover, both the enhanced efficiency of the effective area at the surface and the absolute conversion efficiency of the solar cell are incentives to the industries, and the package power loss of the module could also be further improved. In addition, the high cost of module package has declined in recent years, resulting in a decrease in the production cost per watt. Due to the advantages listed above, MWT technology has become the priority choice among manufacturers.

According to the observations of EnergyTrend, some of the Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers have already entered the R&D and Pilot Run stage, and the mass production stage is forecasted to take place in the second half of 2013. However, the analysis of EnergyTrend also indicated that in order to carry out MWT technology, solar cell manufacturers must coordinate with module manufacturers; thus the MWT technology production time of Chinese manufacturers would be shorter than that of Taiwanese manufacturers. This would likely become a disadvantage for Taiwanese manufacturers.

Due to the recent New Year holiday and the finalized double reverse policy in China, related prices have increased significantly (approximately 135RMB to 150RMB) in the spot market. The price of poly silicon chips has increased up to approximately 6.1 RMB/piece, and the average price of single silicon chips is approximately 2.1RMB/piece. Battery price remained between 2.5RMB to 3.2RMB.

Spot price is still quoted around $16.5/kg to $18/kg, but the spot market is mostly supplied by second and third tier manufacturers-- first-tier manufacturers could only supply a small amount of materials; this week’s average price is up to $16.925/kg, a slight increase of 0.01 percent. This week’s silicon chip price has increased up to $0.854/piece, an increase of 0.12 percent; the manufacturers’ capacity has failed to meet the increased demand of single silicon chips, resulting in an increase by 0.17 percent ($1.18/piece) in average price.

The quoted price for batteries still continues to increase slightly; this week’s average price has increased up to $0.36/Watt, a 0.28 increase. Price increase is also continued in the module industry, with average price up to $0.659/Watt, a 0.3 percent increase.