Emcore tipped for terrestrial solar cell success
Solar cell manufacturer Emcore will start to benefit from sales of products into terrestrial solar panel applications next year.
That's a view expressed by an analyst with Jeffries and Company, Inc., who recently toured the Albuquerque, NM, facility where Emcore makes its triple-junction solar cells.
Compound semiconductor-based solar cells are much more efficient than silicon-based cells, but are generally regarded as being much more expensive.
However, John Lau from Jeffries says that Emcore is confident about competing on cost with silicon-based panels.
This is because GaAs-based solar cells can be designed into so-called "concentrator" systems, where a lens is used to focus sunlight onto a much smaller area of semiconductor than in conventional systems (see related story).
These concentrator systems can also track the movement of the sun throughout the day, which produces a higher electrical output power. Although Lau believes that these designs are not suited to residential use, he does see them being used in the commercial market.
Lau adds that Emcore will be aided by the current shortage of available polysilicon, whereas there is no shortage of either gallium arsenide resources, nor the germanium substrates that the triple-junction cells are grown on.
He believes that systems using Emcore's cells will operate at a cost of $3 per Watt output, similar to the figure for silicon cells.
Emcore is currently working with several solar panel manufacturers on the development of terrestrial concentrator systems. Lau expects the chip manufacturer to see a positive impact on revenue generation in the second half of 2006.
