Applied thin-film line reaches commercial production

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Signet Solar said today it became the first company to enter volume production on a thin-film line by Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) of Santa Clara, Calif.

The 20-megawatt capacity facility in Mochau, Germany, has now received third-party verification of yields and other measures from SGS Germany GmbH. Signet plans to expand capacity to 130 MW by the end of 2009.

Commercial-scale production began today, with the first thin-film silicon modules to be shipped in late October or early November, Keshav Prasad, vice president of business development for Signet, told the Cleantech Group.

As well as being the first commercial application of Applied Materials’ SunFab production line, the modules are expected to be the first produced by Signet, he said.

Signet CEO Rajeeva Lahri said he expects the commercial-scale production to allow Signet to sell the 6-percent efficiency modules at $1.50 per watt for large commercial rooftops and ground-mounted solar farms.

Lahri said the company has already signed orders for 150 MW through 2011, deals worth more than $400 million. Five of Germany’s largest solar installers and other European customers will account for much of the German plant’s output, but Signet plans to send some modules to the U.S. and India, Lahri said.

Those customers include Phoenix Solar, Solar Market, Goldbeck Solar and Alpha Solar, Prasad said.

Signet had previously produced 2,000 of the 5.7 square-meter silicon solar modules in pilot tests.

Signet is also watching the solar market in India, with plans to start construction on a facility in the southeastern city of Chennai in the first half of 2009, Prasad said (see Signet Solar picks Chennai for India manufacturing plant).

Signet expects that plant to have a capacity of 350 MW by 2012, Prasad said. The company has said it plans to spend about $2 billion in India but hasn't disclosed the cost of the facility there (see Signet Solar to make thin-film modules in India).

Prasad said Signet hasn’t decided whether to buy the production line from Applied or another vendor.

Applied's rival, Switzerland's Oerlikon Solar (VTX: OERL.VX), said its Taiwan-based customer Sunwell reached commercial production in September, nine months after receiving the production line (see Oerlikon aims to streamline thin-film solar).

Signet said it reached commercial-scale production seven months after installing the Applied production line.

The value of manufacturing equipment purchased by thin-film photovoltaic and organic PV firms is projected to grow from $450 million in 2008 to $4.8 billion in 2015, according to a recent report from research firm NanoMarkets. 

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