Production Scale-Up of Advanced Wafer Technology for Drastic Solar Photovoltaics Cost Reduction
Lowering the cost of solar via reduced waste and increased precision
Halo Industries, Inc.
Recipient
Palo Alto, CA
Recipient Location
13th
Senate District
24th
Assembly District
$4,000,000
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
In 2022, the team received all remaining, necessary 3rd party production tools as well as qualified all of its internally designed and built systems. One specific in-house designed and built laser tool had stability issues due to the performance of its 3rd party laser system. Through multiple cycles of hardware iteration, the laser system was finally brought in spec in December.
In 2023, the team expects to complete this project and demonstrate the targeted process metrics as well as complete all documentation associated with the project closeout.
The Issue
The silicon solar wafer, which is the base material that the individual solar cells are fabricated from, currently account for 30% to 40% of the cost of a solar module. Solar wafers are currently created using a diamond-coated steel wire that cut through cylindrical silicon ignots using a process that results in up to 50% loss of ingot material as silicon saw dust while also wasting significant amounts of water. Additionally, the wafers can vary in thickness by 10-20 micrometers which further increases waste and lowers quality. New solar wafer production methods with less waste and more precision are needed.
Project Innovation
The purpose of this Agreement is to fund the production scale-up and validation of a novel solar photovoltaics wafer manufacturing technology, proven at the full-scale prototype level, to low rate production stage. This technology uses silicon laser processing technology which results in no silicon material loss and nearly five times thinner wafers and five times less variation in thickness. This new process does not require water and reduces the GHG emissions embedded in the wafer manufacturing process by 50% while increasing quality and performance.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
This Agreement will scale up and validate a novel solar wafer manufacturing technology to low rate initial production and generate significant long-term benefits in the solar photovoltaics field including: a decrease in costs associated with solar modules, an increase in the efficiency of solar modules, a reduction in the environmental impact of the manufacturing of solar modules and an enabling of next-generation solar cell/module architectures.
Affordability
This project is anticipated to significantly lower the cost of solar PV technology by eliminating the waste associated with solar wafer manufacturing and increasing the quality and precision of the cut.
Key Project Members
Andrei Iancu
Match Partners
Halo Industries
