MWT: On the eve of mass production

4th MWT Workshop held in Amsterdam

MWT (Metal Wrap Through) technology is ready for the move from lab to fab. That was the main message from the 4th MWT Workshop, held in Amsterdam on November 20-21.

Over 170 participants from all over the world joined the 2-day workshop held last week in Nemo, Amsterdam. The workshop was hosted by ECN. Relevant equipment manufacturers, materials suppliers, and the world’s major PV producers including Canadian Solar, Yingli and Tianwei presented their latest achievements on the road to large scale manufacturing of MWT. Leading R&D institutes including ECN, Fraunhofer-ISE, ISFH and ISC Konstanz, showed their latest innovations and test results. MWT cell technologies, foil and tab based interconnection and module manufacturing, but also IBC cell and module concepts, were discussed in a total of 18 presentations.

MWT technology

Solar modules available on the market right now are predominantly produced with H-pattern cell and module technology. As an alternative, MWT cells and modules are the key for further reduction of costs of PV by simplification of the production process, higher power output and higher yield.

Ready to go

Competing MWT module concepts based on conventional technology using tabbing, such as are being produced by Canadian Solar, and the ECN technology using conductive back-sheet foils, now in pre-production at Tianwei, were presented. Significant breakthroughs in the price of conductive back-sheet foils were announced by several materials suppliers. Machines and materials available for both technologies were discussed.

In their presentation, Applied Material stated that the MWT concept is an enabling technology: it has room for further improvements through the concepts of selective emitter, PERC type contacts, and also through the use of n-type silicon material.

Canadian Solar started with MWT cells and modules in 2011 and now has 100 MW production capacity. They presented developments on cell level, i.e. using selective emitter and PERC, showing efficiency improvement from 19.6% to 20.6% in production.

 Tianwei, where 150MW for cells and modules production has been installed, stated that the advantages of MWT are seen in more power output, less breakage, and easy transfer from lab to fab. The maturity of the technology for commercial mass production has been demonstrated.

 The Dutch company Eurotron, which has become a key player in the MWT industry, presented apparatus for module manufacture with conductive back-sheets and a new low-cost method for structuring the foils.

Joint effort

The workshop is a joint initiative of the leading PV institutes ECN and Fraunhofer-ISE. Industrial sponsors and the EU project Sophia made the workshop possible. The 5th MWT workshop was announced to be held in 2013, in Freiburg, Germany.

For more information please visit: www.mwtworkshop.com.

For more information, please contact:
Jaap Hoornstra, hoornstra@remove-this-part-ecn.nl

 

 

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