Ritek Partners With Dutch Firm to Make CIGS Solar Cells

Ritek Corp recently signed an agreement to produce Cu-In-Ga-Se (CIGS) thin film solar cell in cooperation with Scheuten Group of Netherlands, aiming to lead global manufacturing of such item by 2010 with output of 120 megawatts.

This deal came after a strategic agreement on silicon modules the two companies signed in August this year. Gordon Yeh, CEO of Ritek Group, a leading Taiwanese manufacturer of optic discs and OLED, said that following the first stage of collaboration with Scheuten on AimCore investment, subsequent strategic collaboration had led to the manufacture of silicon wafer solar cell modules. Thanks to integrating technologies, mass production capacity and market knowledge, both parties decided to collaborate on manufacturing thin film CIGS solar cells.

The latest joint venture, planned to be headquartered in Hsinchu of northern Taiwan, is initially capitalized at NT$600 million, with the two companies each taking a 50 percent stake. Production will start soon when factory is tooled by the end of this year, making it the first such factory in Taiwan to enter into volume production. Output is set at 30 megawatts in initial stage.

CIGS cell involves complicated technology and is the most valuable type of all non-silicon cells given its best conversion of sunlight into electrical power, at peak ratio of 19 percent. The two companies` technology has been proven to be able to covert 15.26 percent of sunlight into electrical power by Taiwan government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), nearly double the efficiency of a-Si solar cell.

Yeh said the joint venture would be able to pare down production cost of the solar cell to around $1 a watt next year, a competitive level which is estimated to be achieved by a-Si cell in 2011 at earliest.

Yieh noted that, although IBM and some Japanese manufacturers are interested in venturing into CIGS cell market, by cooperating with Scheuten, a world`s top three glassmakers, enables his company to cut into the field rapidly.

In addition to CiGS and a-Si, CdTe is another thin film solar cell technology, according to Ritek`s executives. So far, most of the island`s thin film cell makers have focused on a-Si type. The toxicity of CdTe has kept most of manufacturers from putting it on production lines.

Source: CENS