Current status and future prospects for the PVMaT project

The goals of the Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology project (PVMaT) are to help the US PV industry improve photovoltaic manufacturing processes and accelerate cost reductions for PV components and systems. PVMaT is in its ninth year of implementation, and subcontracts with industry have been comp leted from four solicitations for R&D on manufacturing process problems. We are in the second year of subcontracts for a fifth PVMaT solicitation. Bas ed on the latest (1998) data from ten PVMaT industrial participants, the av erage direct manufacturing cost for these producers has been reduced by 29% - from $4.08 to $2.91 per peak watt since 1992 - and there has also been a more than five-fold increase in manufacturing capacity - from 13.1 to 73.3 MW. We believe R&D on manufacturing processes contributes significantly to expeditious reductions in PV manufacturing costs, and we identify areas fo r future R&D. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.