Honda makes a big drive into solar power

business.timesonline.co.uk
February 21, 2010

Honda, the automotive giant, set the land speed record for solar energyed vehicles when it won the World Solar Challenge in 1996. Its Dream racer, an odd-looking vehicle shaped like a cuttlefish, covered 1,870 miles across the Australian outback at an average speed of 56mph. It took just under 34 hours. For dedicated petrol heads it was not the most inspiring event. The Dream was covered with 4,500 photovoltaic tiles but was, as its named implied, not a commercial vehicle. Yet the experience marked the beginning of a big industrial undertaking for the Japanese giant - how to design a better solar panel. Today, the carmaker is churning out 230,000 panels a year from its first solar plant, called Honda Soltec.

They are not for a spruced-up version of the Dream; rather, these are designed for the roofs of houses and industrial buildings. This is more logical than it may seem. solar panels comprise one part of the system that Honda hopes will be created to make a new generation of zero-emission, hydrogen-powered cars. The company is unique among carmakers in that it already has an energy business. It makes generators for the home that use a tiny engine burning natural gas to provide domestic electricity and heating. Honda's Home Energy Station, a newer prototype, would also be able to produce hydrogen, which could be used to run a fuel-cell car, such as its FCX Clarity.

Fuel-cell cars run on hydrogen, which combines with oxygen from the air to generate power. Water is the only by-product. However, large-scale production of fuel-cell cars is still many years away. Indeed, Honda doesn't expect the FCX Clarity to hit the market until 2018. Hydrogen-powered travel is likely to struggle to gain momentum because of the huge infrastructure it would require, such as hydrogen pipelines and filling stations. Yet Honda is doing its best to help the revolution along. Hence the solar business.

Soltec's solar panels are made from a compound semiconductor that has been constructed from copper, indium, gallium and selenium, as opposed to the crystalline silicon typically used. The power-generation layer is one-fortieth the thickness of a human hair. They are not as efficient in electricity generation as the best crystalline silicon panels but they have certain advantages. They are more tolerant of partial shading and have a glassy black rather than blueish appearance, which makes them less obtrusive in architecturally sensitive locations. The manufacturing process needs 50% less energy than a conventional solar panel factory.

At present, Soltec sells only to domestic and industrial users in Japan. The 24 panels that are needed to provide the 3kW of electricity for the average Japanese home cost the equivalent of $20,000 (a tenth of which can be a government subsidy). For most homes in Japan, it will take 10 years to break even in terms of reduced electricity bills - but the environmental benefit is immediate.

Solar energy is a difficult market that is entirely reliant on taxpayer support. Q-Cells, the world's biggest solar cell maker, is expected to report more than £1 billion in losses when he announces year-end earnings this week after Spain, the No 2 solar market, ended its generous subsidy scheme, leading to a supply glut. Germany, the biggest player, has threatened to do the same.

For now, Soltec remains a small part of the car giant's business. Honda insists, however, that it is an important part of its plan to cut the amount of carbon dioxide that is generated from its cars. Its hydrogen aspirations may have to wait. Hybrid vehicles, which run on a combination of petrol and electric power, are already on the road and governments have started to put public money into building the much less obtrusive, and expensive, infrastructure that will be needed for electric cars.