The Rise of CIGS – Finally?
Solar Frontier [formerly Showa Shell, formally Shell, formally Siemens] is building a 900-MW factory in Japan, a manufacturing capacity that could turn the company into the most formidable CIGS competitor. The new factory, its third, would put the company’s total annual production capacity at 980 MW. Solar Frontier expects to start rolling out panels this fall and reach mass production by next spring. (...) Solar Frontier is currently producing panels with 11.5 percent average efficiency, and it expects to hit 14 percent by 2014. (...) In 2009, CIGS companies worldwide collectively shipped about 43 MW of solar panels, which came mostly from Solar Frontier, Global Solar Energy and Honda.