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Honda Solar Cell Plant Opens
12 November 2007
Honda Soltec Co., Ltd., Honda’s wholly-owned solar cell subsidiary, has officially opened its solar cell production plant. (Earlier post.)
Using thin film made from a compound of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) instead of silicon, Honda’s next-generation solar cell achieves a major reduction of approximately 50% in the amount of energy consumed during the manufacturing process compared to what is required to produce conventional crystal silicon solar cells.
Honda Soltec began mass production of solar cells in October, and the annual production will reach the full capacity of 27.5 megawatts (an equivalent amount of electricity to power approximately 9,000 houses) by next spring. The company has also begun sales of solar cells for homes throughout Japan with 80 distributor locations and plans to accelerate sales by increasing the number of distributor locations to more than 200 within 2008. Honda will also work to begin exports of Honda solar cells from its new operation based in Kumamoto.
November 12, 2007 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: domenick | November 12, 2007 at 08:35 AM
It is a bit scary that a factory costing $86M only generates 27.5 MW of solar panels / year.
This is the same as 7 large windmills (@ 4MW each)/year.
Also, is the figure of 3KW/house a bit high - maybe peak power - I am using approx 12 KW / day = 1 KW / daylight hour (and I'm not proud of that).
Anyway, it just demonstrates how expensive PV is, and how far it has to go.
Posted by: mahonj | November 12, 2007 at 11:14 AM
I would rather have 9,000 homes in my 'hood with cells then 7 wind turbines. Plus solar works in alot more places than wind.
Posted by: tonychilling | November 12, 2007 at 08:40 PM
I would be thrilled to help Honda Soltec to establish a Distrbution network, especially in the SE United States. I worked the same area for Isuzu Diesel of North America for 15 years. Your help directing to the proper HR man or woman be most appreciated.
Posted by: Mark Kilworth | May 04, 2008 at 01:24 PM
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Anyone know what the efficiency of these CIGS cells will be? I'm thinking 15% but that's purely a guesstimate.
Hopefully, Honda will offer them as an option (for the owners residence) with their future PHEVs and BEVs.