Another blow to thin film, as Solar Frontier quits manufacturing and switches sides

One of the world’s largest manufacturers of thin-film solar panels, Japan’s Solar Frontier, is getting out of the business, after announcing it will cease production at its remaining plant next year and switch to supplying mono-crystalline panels, with its first product unveiled this week.

The company, which is a subsidiary of Japanese energy giant Idemitsu Kosan, lays claim to being the world’s largest provider of Copper Indium Selenide (CIS) thin-film solar cells, with close to 4GW of modules and system shipments.

The decision comes just weeks after Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries  announced plans to build a 1GW thin-film solar manufacturing facility in Australia after buying a majority stake in Dutch solar and hydrogen technology group HyET, to the surprise of some in the industry.

The Tokyo-based Solar Frontier also holds the highest efficiency for a CIS solar cell to date, achieving 23.35% in 2019, which was a 0.4% improvement on its previous record of 22.9%, set in late 2017.

And back in 2013, when it was owned by Royal Dutch Shell, the company declared it was on track to cut production costs of its thin-film solar modules by 50% within four years, as part of a plan to emerge as one of the world’s biggest solar module manufacturers.

Flash forward to October 2021 Solar Frontier’s exit from thin-film manufacturing was announced by Idemitsu as part of a “business restructuring plan” that would shift its resources from research and manufacturing to “growth areas” that could capitalise on the company’s “unique strengths.”

“The company will transition from in-house production of general-purpose CIS thin-film solar panels to OEM procurement of crystal silicon solar panels,” the statement said.

“As a result, the Company and SF decided to terminate CIS thin-film solar panel production at Kunitomi Plant …at the end of June 2022.”

Idemitsu said that while the 900MW Kunitomi Plant – the biggest and only remaining of three the company had once operated in Japan – would no longer manufacture CIS thin-film solar panels it would maintain some corporate functions as an office and key site in Solar Frontier’s transition to a next-generation systems integrator.

As part of its pivot, the company said SF would aim for PV installation “in locations where panels could not be placed in the past” in Japan, including on deck roofs, existing wave slate roofs, and built-in car ports.

“SF will continue to develop new devices, systems, and construction methods to further expand options for solar power plant installation sites going forward,” the statement said.

Research and development for CIS thin-film solar cells would continue, however, at the Company’s Next Generation Technology Research Laboratory, to accelerate R&D of next-generation solar cells, the statement said.

In this department, areas of focus were listed as applications in outer space, taking advantage of CIS’s strong resilience to radiation and uses for tandem-type solar cells, which were expected to be mounted on moving objects such as electric vehicles and telecom drones.

A further new focus for the company would be on solar panel recycling, with Solar Frontier said to be currently co-developing low-cost technology to reduce the incidence of panels winding up in landfill.

“Efforts to develop new uses for materials, obtain the necessary permits, and formulate the business model are underway so that the solar panel recycling business can be launched during fiscal year 2024,” the statement said.

Thin-film solar has had a checkered past, despite the focus and funding funnelled into the technology by giants of the industry like First Solar, and despite promising levels of cost efficiency and flexibility of installation.

To this day, thin-film panels make up only a tiny percentage of the global solar market and efforts to make them a commercial success have claimed a number of corporate scalps, including Hanergy, most recently, and Solyndra, most spectacularly.

Among the technology’s key stumbling blocks is size – thin-film panels take up more space for less power output and, despite their inherent flexibility, can be trickier and costlier to install. There have also been troubles with proving out longevity of thin-film panels; and they tend to use either costly rare earths (indium) or nasty metals (cadmium) in their manufacture.

Still, research and development on thin-film solar continues in some of the top solar labs all around the world, including by Solar Frontier at its own lab. For now, however, it seems the company wants to get in on the global solar boom underpinned by crystalline technologies.

“Government efforts toward achieving carbon neutrality in 2050 are accelerating,” the Idemitsu statement said. “The 6th Basic Energy Plan (draft) also points to expansion of renewable energy, particularly solar power generation.

“Interpreting this to be an excellent business opportunity, the company reached the conclusion that it is necessary to evolve into a corporate entity which can respond to broad customer needs relating to solar power generation.”