Pressure is on in race for new solar batteries

joongangdaily.joins.com
July 6, 2009

LG affiliates compete with each other for a share of the fast-growing market.

LG Electronics and LG Display, two affiliates of LG Group, are competing with each other to develop the next generation of thin-film solar batteries. The battery's greatest strength is its price competitiveness against the more widely used crystalline silicon solar cell. The manufacturing cost for thin-film solar cells is half that for crystalline silicon cells. It is expected thin-film solar batteries, which took up 13% of the world's solar battery market last year, will account for 30% of the global market in 2015.

But the largest hurdle the thin-film solar battery faces is its complicated manufacturing process. The conversion of solar energy into electricity has been difficult as a result. The two Korean companies, neither of which have the basic technology to manufacture crystalline cells, are trying to raise their share of the global solar battery market with the development of thin-film solar cells. And they may have something of an edge there, given that the technology is similar to that of liquid-crystal displays and light-emitting diodes, markets in which Korea has succeeded in recent years.

LG announced Thursday that its latest thin-film solar cell has attained the world's best energy efficiency. The 1.1-by-1.3-meter battery has an energy efficiency rating of 11.1%. This means that when 100 degrees of solar energy are injected into the solar battery, 11.1% is converted into electricity The previous record was held by Oerlikon, a Swiss company, with a record of 11%.

Paik Woo-hyun, LG Electronics' chief technical officer, said the company will develop the thin-film solar cell and crystalline silicon solar cell, which will go into mass production in the first quarter of next year, as the two pillars of the company's energy business.

The statement was made a month after LG Display announced plans to set up a research team devoted to developing the thin-film solar cell and a thin-film solar cell trial production line worth 50 billion won ($39.4 million). Currently, LG Display's thin-film solar cell has an energy efficiency rating of 8%. "Although we got a late start we plan to utilize our LCD technology to achieve 14% energy efficiency by 2012," said Park Sang-dae, a public relations officer at LG Display.

Smaller businesses such as Telio Solar Korea are also challenging their bigger competitors with their technology development. Telio Solar Korea in May developed a thin-filmed solar cell with an energy efficiency of 10.1%. It plans to manufacture the battery in the third quarter.