Baccini cell systems

Solar installations are rocketing worldwide as solar electricity becomes cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels – it’s already happened in 105 countries. This is the tipping point where economics takes over from altruism and solar PV becomes a serious part of the global energy mix.The steady drop in cost-per-watt is great news for the end user and is enabled by simultaneous increases in cell efficiency and lower manufacturing costs.If you’re a cell manufacturer, though, dropping prices are a double-edged sword: strong demand is good, but you must continuously lower costs by improving your manufacturing processes in order to be profitable.So, in a fiercely competitive industry, how is this done?After the jump, we’ll look at a great example of how cell manufacturers can boost profitability using an emerging technique called “double printing”.

Italy is faced with three very important considerations in determining how to power the nation: Very modest domestic energy resources (it imports 87% of its electricity), resulting high electricity prices and abundance of sunlight. Consequently, over the last few years the Italian government has instituted a series of policies to promote solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment. Growing from just 60MW in 2007, Italy installed almost 2GW of solar PV last year - making it the second largest market in the world.

Applied Baccini Esatto Technology is seeing excellent traction across the globe. Customers around the world relay testimonials that Esatto is a recipe for success in developing next generation processes for higher efficiency solar cells.Esatto is a combination of hardware, software, qualified consumables and production proven processes that offers customers a low risk, production ready way to improve cell efficiency while maintaining and even lowering cost. Through Esatto Technology, Applied Baccini enables customers to conveniently and quickly enhance the efficiency of the c-Si solar cells produced by their exiting lines or future new installed lines.

As the world’s demand for energy continues to escalate, solar power is proving to be one of the most abundant resources available to provide clean, cost-effective energy. Recently, Applied Materials introduced a solar rebate program that allows its U.S. employees to take advantage of currently available incentives to save on future electricity bills, further the movement toward renewable energy and reduce their carbon footprint in the process.