Japanese Shell subsidiary plans solar-panel plant

Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary Showa Shell Sekiyu, Japan's fifth-largest oil refiner, plans to invest 100 billion yen, or about $938 million, in a solar-panel megaplant, according to AFP.

The planned factory will produce panels with the cumulative annual capacity to produce 1 gigawatt of power, equivalent to that of a small nuclear-power reactor.

The news breaks a month after Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda called for a tenfold increase in the country's use of solar power by 2020. The government is considering subsidies to boost the industry.

Showa came into the solar-power business last year, with its first 20-megawatt-capacity photovoltaic plant in the southern city of Miyazaki. In August, it announced plans to build a second factory, with a capacity to produce 60 megawatts.

The company produces its thin-film photovoltaics with copper, indium, and selenium (CIS). This differs from the combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (CIGS) that companies such as Miasole, HelioVolt, Nanosolar, and Global Solar are using.

In 2005, CIS had reached a maximum efficiency in converting solar light to electricity of roughly 20 percent, according to scientific studies (PDF). That is similar to the 19.9 percentage mark that CIGS cells achieved in March by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Both are a lot cheaper to manufacture than traditional silicon cells, just like cadmium telluride thin film, manufactured by First Solar.

The location of the new plant remains undisclosed, but rumors say the company is considering areas of Japan, Europe, and the Middle East. Equally unknown is the financial source for the project.

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