Located in Chungbuk province in Korea and first established in the country by Hyundai Avancis, the factory of CIGS thin-film solar cell delivers bright and light image through orange and yellow that symbolizes sun. The firm decision and effort of Hyundai Avancis was represented by the slogan ‘150Wp, Dream comes true!’ shown in the broad office. The 3 national flags shown in the conference room seem to symbolize the ardent passion over CIGS thin-film solar cell of Hyundai Avancis, a 50:50 J/V established by German Avancis, a subsidiary company of Saint Gobain, France and Hyundai Heavy Industry, Korea.  
     
Starting business by investing USD 220 million to Ochang Science Complex adjacent to Sejong-si in April last year and holding the ceremony for the completion of CIGS thin-film solar cell factory in the scale of 100MW, Hyundai Avancis is currently operated by 110 people, but the number of employees will be increased to 210 as per plan of mass production in the next year. Having construction site for 4 factories in the area of 212,000 sqm, Hyundai Avancis plans to gradually augment production capacity up to 400MW by 2015.
Finishing equipment set up with automation line for high efficiency & better yield rate and currently improving efficiency of the process, Hyundai Avancis installs domestic equipment up to 20% of total equipment including the main equipment. Planning to gradually increase the portion of domestic equipment, Hyundai Avancis pushes forward to localize equipment in the cooperation of Korea & Germany. Only 1 technician is actually dispatched from Germany, Hyundai Avancis is recognized by Germany for Korean LCD technology which is in the top level and high speed of Korean. Its goal is to complete the basic performance test by completely setting up equipment this year.

Planning to launch pilot products in March next year, Hyundai Avancis has goal to upgrade the performance of module whose photo-transformation efficiency is high. As products of 142Wp and 146Wp are launched in the market, Hyundai Avancis is trying to achieve 150Wp. It judges that although it should adopt the economy of scale to overcome the limit of structure of production cost, it must acquire cost competitiveness with skilled labor & proper infra and heighten barrier of technical entrance by getting technical competitiveness. Checking the theoretically maximum efficiency of crystalline structure and thin-film, crystalline structure cell is 24~25% and thin-film is in the level of 20%. While the efficiency of crystalline structure falls to 18% through module process, the efficiency of thin-film is unlikely to fall with merit to easily improve efficiency without new investment. As the efficiency of crystalline structure rises to the level of 18%, however, it is required to introduce high cost equipment which is accompanied by cost increasing factor. Checking the tendency in the change of crystalline structure market, it is judged that thin-film marketing is opening and situation to compete with comparable competitiveness is ripened. The global economic crisis and relatively weak marketing can be fully potential if attacking BIPV market targeting residential and commercial market by upgrading thin-film module of high efficiency.  
   

In the case of manufacture based on the most advanced technology like semi-conductor and LCD in 1990s’, the technology developed in the advanced country was imported to Korea, where it was fundamental for Koreans to develop their own technology with their speedy work to make prosperous business. Like other manufactures, one of the main reasons is that technical power like Germany, Japan, etc, loses production competitiveness due to relative increase of production cost. I think that this case may be also applied to CIGS thin-film solar cell.
Having lower production cost than Germany and Japan and higher technical power and technical manpower than China and Southeast Asian countries, Korea can be said to have human and material infra which is proper to manufacture CIGS thin-film solar cell in large quantity. Viewing the rapid expansion of CIGS thin-film solar cell production by Japanese companies, the representative semi-conductor of Taiwan to enter CIGS business and the frequent M&A of company specialized in CIGS these days, I am sure that Asia is the most proper region to push forward this new business based on technology. Meanwhile, Hanergy in China is aggressively merging and acquiring company specialized in CIGS thin-film solar cell, which is even threatening. This is because it intends to hold the 2nd generation solar cell market after crystalline structure. Selecting CIGS thin-film solar cell as the business of next generation, both the Japanese company that already has production capacity over 900MW and Taiwanese company that is the 1st ranked company of semi-conductor foundry are eager to develop technology and to accumulate mass production technology. Such movement is also stimulating to us in the same context.
The merit of Hyundai Avancis is that it develops mass production technology both in Germany and Korea on the basis of its technology accumulated for 30 years. We also think that the synergy effect realized by combining the solid technology of Germany and speed of Korea forms our significant and basic physical strength. Indeed, this infra of technical innovation considerably shortens the time necessary for a series of process of constructing factory-importing equipment- operating equipment- developing products in Ochang.

Enhancing efficiency with higher cost competitiveness through improvement of productivity and the uniformity of thin-film with wide area

 
What is the photoelectric conversion efficiency of CIGS thin-film solar cell that is to be produced in large quantity as the construction of its factory started in Ochang Chungbuk last year? Then, when will it be produced in large quantity?

 
Although equipment was imported and installed in full scale at the beginning of this year, most equipment is ready for production in just 6~7 months. This is possible due to the resolution and intention of officers and staff of Hyundai Avancis to early settle the technology of CIGS thin-film solar cell for the first time in the country. Considering CIGS thin-film solar cell business as the next generation profitable business than anything else, the atmosphere to realize it can solve the present difficulty of photovoltaic industry. Thanks to the result of efforts made by officers and staff, we get the capacity to produce products which can be immediately sold in the market. However, market is changing rapidly and not only the price of module products but also needs for efficiency of module is also changing fast. Thus, Hyundai Avancis strives to acquire technology and operation method to produce module of higher efficiency at the low production cost. The goal is to launch products that have the highest module efficiency in the world in the 1st half of next year.

While the main issue in the photovoltaic production site is to develop products of high efficiency and low cost these days, what is the latest photovoltaic technical issue in which Hyundai Avancis is interested?

As mentioned before, Hyundai Avancis prepared factory and equipment this year and will actually produce module by operating factory next year. Hyundai Avancis is satisfied with the fact that it fully showed its own speed this year. Next year, it will check each technology to produce high grade products satisfying the market needs to realize innovation. Needless to say, the business of next year is also going on at present. It will be more accelerated next year. Establishing the attainment of 150Wp in the 1st half of 2013 as its own goal, Hyundai Avancis will go through the unexplored way. Studying continuously the additional extension planned already, Hyundai Avancis will constantly update its future image.

* Original Article in Korean

    
(Source: The Dec. issue of Solar Today magazine)