Thin film photovoltaic business outlook is gloomy

Oerlikon, one of the world’s leading suppliers of thin-film PV cell equipment, announced recently that the group has transferred its solar energy business as a whole to Japan’s semiconductor production equipment supplier TEL. Both parties have not announced specific trading conditions and prices.

The industry believes that, from the perspective of cost and photoelectric conversion rate, after the cost of crystalline silicon cells has been substantially reduced last year, its advantages have gradually emerged, and thin-film batteries due to a one-time investment in equipment, the prospect of large-scale commercial applications is even more gloomy.

Two equipment giants have exited

Michael Buscher, CEO of Oerlikon Group, said that this transfer is an important part of the Group’s strategic measures to streamline and balance its product portfolio. Its purpose is to focus on developing the Group’s other product lines and focus on the development of larger and stronger business areas. Get sustained profit growth. It is understood that the transaction has yet to be approved by the relevant organization's mergers and acquisitions regulation and is expected to be completed in a few months.

Oerlikon is headquartered in Switzerland and is a leader in the field of amorphous silicon thin film solar equipment. According to company information, the company has signed sales contracts with 870MW production capacity, and 15 customers have been put into production operations in seven countries. In 2010, sales of the solar business segment reached 254 million Swiss francs.

China Securities Journal reporter noted that as early as mid-2010, the world’s largest film photovoltaic equipment supplier, Applied Materials Corporation (AMAT), formally announced its withdrawal from thin-film battery production due to continued losses.

At present, among the world's three major thin-film battery manufacturers, Oerlikon, Applied Materials, and First Solar (the self-sufficient component supplier of equipment), only First Solar has survived, and the commercialization of thin-film photovoltaic cells has become difficult to support.

Cost forced back thin film photovoltaic

Oerlikon’s helplessness also shows that the thin film photovoltaic market is difficult to develop and has poor profitability. Over the past few years, Oerlikon has invested heavily in thin-film photovoltaic equipment, but the benefits are few, and the pressure for losses is relatively large. Last year after the price of crystalline silicon photovoltaics fell sharply, shareholders have seen that the future direction of the photovoltaic industry should be polysilicon, which had to peel off the business.

The struggle between crystalline silicon cells and thin-film battery technology has always existed. At present, polycrystalline silicon and single-crystal silicon cells account for 80% of the market's share, while thin-film batteries with three major technical directions, namely cadmium telluride, CIGS copper indium selenide batteries, and amorphous silicon thin-film batteries, account for a two-tenth share.

Judging from the competitive advantages of both parties, crystalline silicon cells require high-energy-produced polycrystalline silicon as raw materials. In 2008, the prices were as high as US$400/kg, and the requirements for light conditions were also high. The raw materials for thin-film batteries were easily available for light conditions. The requirements are not high, but the one-time investment in equipment is 10 times that of crystalline silicon cells of the same size.

However, from the beginning of last year, the balance of their respective strengths and weaknesses has been tilted. Due to overcapacity, uncertainties in European demand and other factors, polysilicon prices have risen from above US$100/kg in early 2011, and have continued to decline until the fourth quarter of last year, stabilizing to US$30/kg.

In June 2011, Wang Jun, president of Oerlikon China in China, said in an interview with a China Securities Journal reporter that the drop in polysilicon prices was definitely unfavorable to the company’s sales. At the same time, he refused to disclose the company's orders in 2011. According to the China Securities News reporter, in 2011 Oerlikon had almost no new orders in the Chinese market.