Can the World’s Worst CD and DVD Manufacturer Do Better with Solar Energy?
Sun Well Solar—a subsidiary of the notoriously poor CD and DVD manufacturer, CMC Magnetics—has announced today that it is one month ahead of schedule in the ramp-up of its new photovoltaic production line.
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Every 50 seconds, their Taipei Taiwan plant is currently producing one brand new, amorphous thin-film silicon solar cell—thanks to micromorph tandem-cell production equipment purchased from Oerlikon Solar.
As we’ve previously noted, Oerlikon has a long track record with thin-film solar innovations, but its production equipment is only as good as the, erghm … “electronics manufacturing services (EMS)” who buy them.
Last July, Oerlikon sold 60-MW and 120-MW solar production lines to Sun Well and made a similar deal with Singapore-based Flextronics. (Some of you may recall Flextronics as the company that introduced double the World Health Organization’s maximum for acceptable Nickel content into Guadalajara’s well water. At the time, they were making Xboxes for Microsoft there.)
Sun Well’s facility promises “more than 1,250 panels or 110 kW produced per day,” which according to their press release, “is equivalent to about 10% of the world’s module production, making Sun Well one of the largest in Asia.”
All well and good, provided that these solar cells don’t totally blow chunks.
Image credit: Orin Optiglot at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
A normal Nuclear power plant produces about 1000 MW, a normal car produces about 0.1 MWatt. 40 MWatt is probably how much the plant can produce in a year. So each pannel produced every 50 seconds, is porbably more like a 70 watt pannel (about 0.5 - 1 meter ^2).
You’re right, this guy.
The “110 kW/day” times “365 days/year” yields about 40.15 MW/yr. So, the production line’s output (and not the individual cell’s output) is 40 MW/yr.
I deleted the numerical gaffe from the post (probably should have done a strikethrough).
Thanks! Good catch!
Hi, don’t get me wrong - don’t want to protect any of those companies named above but, after monitoring the thin film PV market for a while, the Swiss based Oerlikon Solar seems to me a well respected enabler of an economically viable green power generation solution.
In order to stick to the facts I have to admit that some of your posted content is simply incorrect (see facts below)
Howecver, I agree that we have to monitor closely, if those companies execute on their promises and would be happy if you could share your (sources of) information to exchange views and get a broader picture to what seemed to me a clear green technology (thin film silicon PV - other than CadTel PV - uses non polluting raw materials) and - more important - to most PV experts - a very promising, clean technology for low cost co2-free electricity generation…
SOME FACTS:
The panel size is 1.4m2
Depending on the thin film silicon PV technology in production:
-amorph
-micromorph tandem technology
one panel produces an average from around Watt 90 Watt to around 125 Watt.
the size 40MWp indicates the yearly fab production capacity.
sorry, me again - the Flex statement in your posting made me curious so I just had a look on their website:
Flextronics is NOT a customer of theirs , but an outsourced manufacturer (EMS) providing hardware parts of the turnkey lines (if I understand their media release right)
“(…) Oerlikon Solar and Flextronics, a leading EMS provider with proven expertise in the solar industry, have entered into an agreement whereby Flextronics will support Oerlikon Solar’s scalability requirements for global production capacity allowing the execution of more simultaneous projects in multiple geographies. Flextronics’ strong global presence and vast resources will enable Oerlikon Solar to optimize its operations and reduce time to market. “The Flextronics Industrial segment operates a focused global team that is dedicated to providing advanced solar solutions to this strategic customer segment. By leveraging our experience in the semiconductor capital equipment, energy and electro-mechanical equipment markets, our solar team is able to rapidly develop unique solutions for the emerging solar market. We have developed a broad service offering for this space and will continue to make further investments in this high growth market. We are very pleased to have entered into this partnership and look forward to working with Oerlikon Solar,” states EC Sykes, President Flextronics Industrial.(…)”
Before writing an article it is best to do some detailed research. If you did the research you will find that CMC produces very high quality product for most of the world famous OEM CD and DVD brands.
Before you make an absurd comment about Sun Well you should have asked to visit the Sun Well facility. It is very impressive!
It seems that you have an axe to grind and that this story is planted by the sorry competition to Sun Well (most of which can’t match their price and productivity or sell toxic product like First Solar).
CMC successfully serves the world’s largest and most discerning customers in its media business, so they vehemently disagree with you, and they’re the ones who provide the real truth.
Sun Well has already earned the respect of large, well funded customers for its product, which comes at a great price with high quality and great customer service.
You may want to visit the factory and do more homework before making such highly derogatory statements for which you are liked to be sued!