Progress update on the US Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology project

Abstract

The Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) project is helping the U.S. photovoltaic (PV) industry extend its world leadership role in manufacturing and stimulate the commercial development of PV modules and systems. Initiated in 1990, PVMaT is being carried out in several directed and staggered phases to support industry's continued progress. Thirteen subcontracts awarded in FY 1996 under Phase 4A emphasize improvement and cost reduction in the manufacture of full-system PV products. Areas of work in Phase 4A included, but were not limited to, issues such as improving module-manufacturing processes; system and system-component packaging, integration, manufacturing, and assembly; product manufacturing flexibility; and balance-of-system development with the goal of product manufacturing improvements. These Phase 4A, product-driven manufacturing research and development (R&D) activities are now completing their second phase. Progress under these Phase 4A and remaining Phase 2B subcontracts from the earlier PVMaT solicitation are summarized in this paper. Evaluations of the success of this project have been carried out in FY 1995 and late FY 1996. This paper examines the 1997 cost/capacity data that have been collected from active PVMaT manufacturers.

PV Manufacturing R&D Accomplishments and Status

“…This has been accomplished through six procurements, including the latest and currently active procurement titled "In-line Diagnostics and Intelligent Processing (IDIP)." The details of these procurements have been described in a number of other papers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] and will not be reviewed here. Generally, over the course of these procurements, subcontracts have focused on three main areas.…”

PVMaT 1998 overview

“…Subcontracted research under these partnerships are based on competitive government procurements. They are focused on: 1) process-specific research and development (R&D) on industry-selected manufacturing technology developments, 2) teamed R&D on industryidentified common problem areas, and 3) improvements in balance-of-system performance integration and manufacturing, as detailed in previous papers [1][2][3][4][5][6]. All work in the PVMaT project is managed by a Technical Monitoring Team consisting of engineers and scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL).…”