Innovative Production of Solar Cells by Epitaxial Technology (Innovative project in business sector - BIA)

The profitable production of solar cell modules in Norway requires cells with a high efficiency for conversion of sunlight to electricity, efficient use of raw materials and energy and a high degree of automation such that the production can compete with countries with lower labour costs. A company was established in Narvik to produce solar cell wafers based on innovative technologies that were expected to give the necessary competitive edge. The wafers are formed by an 'epitaxial' process that deposits silicon from the gas phase, allowing thinner cells to be produced. These cells are subjected to further novel processing operations to give a high sunlight conversion efficiency, and the process uses automation to reduce the labour and production costs. The resultats from research performed in the course of the project has been used for specification of the industrial production process. The epitaxial reactor technology was successfully demonstrated with a prototype in Q1/2017. However, there were encountered problems with the durability of some reactor components, necessitating a redesign of the reactor. The plan for implementation in Norway has to be adjusted to match the progress of our partner. At the same time, market developments for solar cell industry and technology have continued to deteriorate in terms of earning potential (business model), making the economics for our concept challenging. The market price for silicon wafers was US$4-5 per wafer when the development process was started in 2008, and it recently has been down to US$0,30. This has also resulted in a need for scaling up of the production units in order to reduce the production costs and improve the business model. The project has developed a scaled-up version for the reactor, but this has yet to be tested in practice. This will most likely be performed together with industrial partners and investors in a new phase of the process development.

Gjennom prosjektet har partnere bygget opp kompetanse og kunnskap om flere nye fagfelt, og bruk av disse mot halvlederproduksjon. Forståelse for epitaxial deponering prosesser har blitt bygd opp gjennom utførelse av multifysisk simulering som har effektivisert design prosess og blitt verifisert gjennom pilot testing i USA. Wafer-etsing prosess har blitt videreført fra PhD studie, og oppnådde vesentlig lavere energiforbruk ved fullskala enn som hadde blitt rapportert under tidligere labforsøk. Automatisering av wafer handling for epitaxial produksjon av wafere har blitt utviklet og demonstrert med en pilot anlegg. Fabrikk arrangementer med høy grad av automatisering er utviklet i samarbeid med Crystal Solar i USA. Forretningsmodell er utviklet og justert for sammenligning opp mot tradisjonell produksjonsprosesser.

The effect goal for this project is the re-establishment of state-of-the-art production of solar cells in Norway, by Borealis Solar A.S. In order to compete against production from low cost countries the following key features are identified: * High material utilisation efficiency through reducing waste * Lower labour costs through automation * Market advantage for the product, through achieving higher cell efficiency. Collaboration between NORUT Narvik, Narvik Science Park, Narvik Capital and Scatec has resulted in the establishment of Borealis Solar AS as the company that will implement the solar cell production process. An epitaxial deposition process has been identified as representing the current state-of-the-art technology for producing solar cells that meets the key features listed above. Further development of this process will be made and tailoring of the subsequent processing to the properties of the epitaxial wafers will include the implementation of the alkaline etching process developed at NORUT Narvik, and automation technologies developed by Tronrud Engineering. The research tasks outlines in the project plan are required to enable Borealis Solar to adopt and adapt the new processing technologies provided by the partners. The challenges involved are proof of concept, scale up to industrial processes, achieving efficient production with low material and labour costs and high material and energy utilisation efficiency. The research activities directly impact on the reduction of the production cost, the realisation of market competitive solar cell efficiencies and the reduction of wastage.