Author: Dr Mohan Narayanan, Advisor Technology & Strategy / Presenter: Dr Balachander Krishnan, Deputy General Manager Manufacturing – Adani Solar | Topic: Globalization of Solar Cell Manufacturing: Optimization of Cost, Skill and Resources

The global PV market is expected to touch 200GW by mid 2020s. Presently, solar module manufacturing is established in many countries, but solar cell manufacturing is in only about 20 countries. While the entire solar cell manufacturing process—front end to back end—is completed in the same location, the front and back ends require vastly different skill sets, expertise, utilities and facilities.

However, PV module installation is expected to grow significantly in the several countries in Africa and Asia. There will be significant employment generation if back end cell manufacturing along with module manufacturing is set up in such countries that have significant potential growth in PV module installation. Integrating these processes for the backend will also improve the efficiency of using resources and expertise of the front end. Several technical and trade challenges which are needed to be addressed will be discussed in the presentation.