First Solar's Huge New Chinese Power Plant

Wednesday, September 09, 2009
First Solar's Huge New Chinese Power Plant

The 2-gigawatt plant will be the world's largest. But can First Solar's technology be scaled up?
By Kevin Bullis

First Solar, a leading maker of solar panels, based in Tempe, AZ, has announced that it will build an enormous, 2,000 megawatt solar power plant in China, starting next year. Bloomberg reports that it will be the largest solar power plant in the world.

The move is evidence of the falling prices for photovoltaics, which convert sunlight directly into electricity and have historically been seen as too expensive for very large power plants. But although the new power plant will be large by historical standards for solar, it's still a tiny fraction of the world's total energy needs, which number in the millions of megawatts. And some experts warn that the kind of solar cell that First Solar makes cannot be made in the large numbers needed to supply a large part of the world's electricity demands.

Typically, utilities have favored solar-thermal technology, which use heat from the sun to make steam that drives generators, for large power plants. For example, in California 6,000 megawatts worth of large solar projects are under review by the federal Bureau of Land Management, and all involve solar thermal. But First Solar, which makes "thin-film" solar cells, has been able to sharply drive down the cost of making photovoltaics, and is known for having the lowest manufacturing costs in the solar industry. (This is difficult to confirm, since not all solar companies publicly disclose their costs.)

However, First Solar's cells use tellurium, a relatively rare element, which could limit the number that can be built in a year. And, according to one recent report, the availability of tellurium could limit worldwide production of such cells to about 10,000 megawatts per year, even though very little tellurium is used in each solar cell.

First Solar has disputed concerns about the availability of tellurium, saying there is plenty to be had for the foreseeable future. But to reach millions of megawatts of solar cells, we will likely need a variety of solar cells, especially ones based on common materials such as silicon.

Tags: energy, china, photovoltaics, first solar, solar power plant, solar thermal, tellurium, thin film

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To the article, it's great to see solar projects of this magnitude. I would love to see the US build on this scale -- our biggest is 14 Megawatts at Nellis AFB.
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(Reply)
jpm1u
09/12/2009

This will force the Chinese to clean up the air pollution.
Large photovoltaic power plants in China are good news for everybody.

You can't run such facilities with the current air quality of Beijing, Shenzen or Shanghai. So, it will force the authorities to curb air pollution.
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(Reply)
gabrielg01
09/12/2009
Posts:383Avg Rating:


Cost
First Solar claims well under 1 dollar per Watt manufacturing cost. They also disclose about 50-60% gross margins. They might be selling the modules at the wholesale level under 1.50 per Watt already. So what will the installed cost be? Such a big plant should get serious economy of installation scale, and in a low labor country with low legislative costs for doing business, I imagine a fully installed system cost in the 2-3 dollars per Watt range.

Pretty cheap, and good business with the new Chinese solar feed in tariff thing. Though if they want to compete with Chinese coal plants a target under 1 dollar installed at the system level would be required.

It looks like First Solar thinks large cost reductions are still possible.

Siphon
09/13/2009
Posts:134Avg Rating:


Get Real
The Chinese are playing the same game they've been playing for decades. Show interest in the technology, steal it, sell it to the do-gooders in other countries, reap the proceeds, repeat. Let's see a follow-up on this in 3 years.
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(Reply)
justahick
09/13/2009

tellurium aplenty
you want tellurium? come to Colorado. we have a town named telluride, you know. one of our largest gold mines is about to shut down because of too much tellurium. if the market for that element improved, we could supply the world!

Comment

It sounds like the Chinese are taking the lead in solar energy, whether out of a desire to create clean jobs, or a necessity to clean up their environment. Either way, its a win-win. Large orders will also bring down the cost of such projects. The thin film solar cells are not nearly as efficient as the usual type but can be produced pretty cheaply and can be put just about anywhere - side of walls, on cars, on windows, etc.