The potential of large tariffs being retroactively applied to goods shipped from the four nations, which supply about 80% of US polysilicon solar panels, caused many developers to cancel or delay projects due to the uncertainty it caused.īates questioned whether these were genuine concerns, or if they were instead talking points to continue to support these international supply chains. For many in the industry, the Department of Commerce’s investigation into Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand for alleged harboring of tariff-circumventing Chinese goods came under the crosshairs as a major reason for the shortage. Supply shortages have been the dominant problem for the buildout of solar in 2022. “It’s ironic when solar panels are not recycled, or made of recycled material, or are just thrown away.” And it goes back into the supply chain, which not only benefits the industry to keep the costs down, but also helps the planet,” said Bates. Normally, in any manufacturing process there is some scrap or excess material thrown away, but this is not the case for Toledo Solar.
Bates said PV is notoriously bad at recyclability, with CdTe being an exception. More recycled material than even what’s in automobiles, which are made of highly recycled materials, whether it’s steel, aluminum, plastics, polymers,” said Bates.įirst Solar has already set up recycling centers globally for CdTe modules and has sharpened best practices for using the most material possible from retired panels. There’s a higher percentage, no matter if you want to measure it by weight or components or the cost of said components, there’s a higher percentage of recycled everything in a CadTel module. “First Solar has been doing this for 25+ years. This is important to utilities, too, which are mandated to supply a reliable, stable source of electricity.īates credits First Solar for being a pioneer in solar module recycling, an industry that is woefully underfunded and underbuilt in the silicon solar cell space. Due to this, stability and bankability, and decreased risk are important, both in the supply and delivery of planned projects, and the performance in the field.īates said the degradation level of CdTe is much lower than polysilicon modules, and they perform better in high temperatures, meaning the technology is a safer bet for investors who sign 20 to 30-year power purchase agreements with large utility off-takers. This factor is not measured in efficiency ratings, but it is measured in the final kWh output of the panel, said Bates.īecause CdTe is largely used at the utility scale, projects are quite large, making investment and liability high. Unlike polysilicon, CdTe is photoactive to the entire visible light spectrum. There are quite a few reasons to support CdTe and US-made solar, said Bates, including technological advantages, bankability, recyclability, supply chain stability, improved labor practices, and more.įirst, Bates said CdTe has a wider range of spectral responses than polysilicon cells, the main source of US solar panels. So why all the growth, and why did Bates enter the market? About 20 years ago, it represented less than 1% of solar installations. Eventually, he purchased an existing CdTe facility in Ohio, which today operates as the module supplier Toledo Solar.īates said that 90% of US utility-scale projects last year were CdTe, and the utility-scale sector makes up about 55% of all solar capacity added. He said he was trying to find reasons not to enter the space, and the more he looked, the more CdTe became appealing. Aaron Bates, the founder of Toledo Solar, an Ohio-based manufacturer of CdTe modules, told pv magazine USA that the technology has grown from a small fraction of solar projects to the dominant source of modules in utility-scale projects.īates came from an institutional finance background, and when he first got involved in solar, he was intrigued by this level of growth and began investigating. 2019 grid parity white paperĬadmium telluride (CdTe) solar panels, famously made by First Solar, are an essential part of the US solar module ecosystem. Clean Power Research: Solar data solutions to maximize PV project performance.Energy Storage North America Special 2018.The smarter E Europe 2019 special edition.Market overview: Microgrid control systems.Market overview: Large-scale storage systems.
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