This document provides an introduction to solar energy technologies and companies in the industry. It discusses the two main technologies to harness solar power: concentrated solar power and photovoltaics. For photovoltaics, it explains how solar cells work and the materials used, including crystalline silicon and thin films. It also outlines the solar value chain and some of the major companies involved in manufacturing solar modules, cells, wafers, and polysilicon. Concentrating solar technologies like parabolic troughs and towers are also introduced.

1. Introduction to Solar Energy
Technologies and Companies
For Strategy Managers, Investors & Entrepreneurs

2. Two main ways to harness Solar Power
• Concentrated Solar Power Technology
– Solar energy is concentrated and used to produce thermal energy.
– Thermal energy is then converted to electricity.
• Photovoltaic (PV) Technology
– Electricity is produced directly from solar radiation.

3. Two ways to harness solar power
Solar Power is concentrated
and converted to thermal
energy which is converted to
electric energy
P
N
P
N
Solar Power is converted to
electricity using PV
(Photovoltaic) effect

4. How do PhotoVoltaics work?
How is electricity generated?
When light shines on a PV cell, the
energy of the absorbed light is
transferred to electrons in the atoms
of the PV cell.
These electrons escape from their
normal positions in the atoms of the
semiconductor PV material and
become part of the electrical flow, or
current, in an electrical circuit.
This is called the photoelectric effect.
What is a PV cell?
A PV cell consists of two thin layers of semi-conducting material. Each
layer is "doped" or infused with a small amount of another
material. One layer is doped (usually with phosphorus) so that it has
slightly too many electrons. This is the “n-layer”. The other layer is
doped (usually with boron) so that it has slightly too few electrons.
This is the “p-type” layer.
This difference produces a small electric field between the two layers,
which gives the “escaped” electrons (from the photoelectric effect) a
direction to flow when they get knocked out of place.
Source: Abengoa Website
Silicon has been the
traditional semiconductor
used in PV applications

5. PV Efficiency
• Bandgap Energy
– Amount of energy required to dislodge an electron.
– The PV material bandgap energy is tuned to convert as much sunlight as
possible into electricity.
– Crystalline silicon has a bandgap energy of 1.1 electron-volts (eV).
– Bandgap energies of other PV semiconductors range from 1.0 to 1.6 eV.
• Other ways to increase PV efficiences:
– Using multiple p/n junctions (multi-junction cells)
– Use antireflective coating to capture as much light as possible.
– Maximize the photons that are absorbed in the p-layer.
– Minimize the electrons from meeting up with holes and recombining with
them before they can escape from the PV cell.

6. Semi Conductors used in PV Cells
• Crystalline Silicon - most common (1st generation)
• Involves sawing wafers (~200 µm) from ingots
– Single-Crystalline Si: highly purified silicon
– Poly-Crystalline Si: silicon is of less purity
– Ribbon Si: grown from molten silicon instead of an ingot.
• Thin film material (< 5 µm) – 2nd generation
– The advantages are light weight and low cost and that they can be deposited
over large areas by chemical vapor deposition.
• Third Generation. Current research ongoing:
– dye-sensitized titania solar cells
– organic photovoltaics
– Solar tandem cells
– and …

7. Silicon PV: Value Chain
Solar Modules
Solar Cells
Silicon Ingot Silicon Wafers
This part of the chain is Oligopolistic.
Increase in the poly-silicon prices (200% in 2 years) has been a key issue in the industry.

8. Thin film PV material (2nd Generation PV)
A-Si CIGS (TeCd) Micro Si Titanium
dioxide
(TiO2)
Amorphous Silicon
Non –crystalline allotropic
from of silicon
Copper Indium
gallium (di) selenide
Cadmium
Telluride
Absorbs light more
effectively than crystalline
silicon.
The band gap energy can
be tuned between 1.1 eV
and 1.75 eV.
a-Si can also be deposited
on plastic and stainless
substrates (not only glass)
Lowering costs and
increasing flexibility and
durability.
Absorbs light very
effectively. The band
gap can be tuned
between 1.02 eV and
1.68 eV.
High efficiency and
low material cost are
the key advantages.
The drawbacks are
complicated and
capital intensive
manufacturing
methods.
Diverse
manufacturing
techniques are
available for large
scale production.
Drawbacks are
cost and potential
health concerns.
Reported
high
efficiencies
and
negligible
degradation.
Use a dye-
impregnated
layer of
titanium
dioxide to
generate
voltage.
Cost is the key
advantage.

9. Concentrating Solar
• Focussing sunlight into a beam
• Uses lenses or mirrors and tracking systems.
• Key technology issues:
– Parabolic Trough
– Tower
• Two key ways to use:
– Generate Electricity allowing sun beam to fall on a photovoltaic cell (CPV)
– Generate Electricity/Heat thru the use of steam (CSP/Solar Heat)

10. Concentrating Technology: Parabolic Trough
The main components of parabolic trough technology are:
The parabolic trough reflector:
Reflects sunlight onto the receiver at the focal point.
Typically, the reflector is made of thick glass silver mirrors
formed into the shape of a parabola.
The receiver tube or heat collection element:
Collects/Absorbs the solar energy.
Consists of a metal absorber surrounded by a glass
envelope.
The suntracking system:
Tracks & focusses the reflector onto the sun.
The support structure:
Holds the mirrors in accurate alignment and resistis the
effects of the wind.
Source: Abengoa Site

11. Concentrating Technology: Tower
The main components of parabolic trough technology are:
Heliostats
Capture solar radiation and direct it to the receiver.
They are composed of a reflective surfaces (glass mirrors), a
supporting structure and mechanisms used to orientate
them, following the sun’s movement
The receiver
Transfers received heat to an operating fluid (which could
be water, molten salts, etc.). This fluid transmits heat to
another part of the plant where steam is produced.
The tower
Acts as support for the receiver which should be located at
a certain height above the heliostats level to avoid, or at
least reduce, shades and blockings.
Source: Abengoa Site

12. Concentrated Technology: Fresnel lens
• The lens is broken into a set of concentric annular sections.
• This allows reduction in thickness (and thus weight and
volume of material) of the lens.
• ….at the expense of reducing the imaging quality.

13. Solar Technology Applications
• Utility-scale plants
• Commercial Systems
• Residential systems
• Building Integrated Modules
• Rural Electrifications
May be either Off –grid/connected to grid

14. The Solar Map – Companies and Technologies
Concentrated
Solar
CSP CPV
Building utility scale plants
US: Ausra, Solar Reserve
US/Israel: BrightSource:LuzII
Building Utility scale plants
US: Energy Innovations, SolFocus, Green
Volts
PV Traditional Silicon based Innovations on Silicon Thin Film & 3rd Gen.
Solar Cell Manufacturing
Japan: Sharp, Sanyo,
US: First Solar, SunPower
Europe: Qcells, REC Solar
China: SunTech,Solarfun
Reducing amount of
silicon
US: OptiSolar,
Evergreen Solar
Non silicon based PV
US: Opti Solar, Stion, Nano
Solar, AvaSolar, SoloPower
Applications
Technology
Residential & Comercial Utility Rural
BIPV and Heating applications
Typically smaller cos in
respective markets
US: Meridian Solar, Open Energy
Larger plants
US: Solar Power, SunPower
Europe: Conergy,AbenGoa
Street lighting, lanterns,
refrigerator
India: SELCO
US/India: Promethean
Smaller financiers like Mondial
Energy
Larger partners like GE
Energy
Aryabhatt Gramin Bank,
Not featured subsequently in this analysis

15. PV: Cos in the Value Chain
Solar Module
Maunufacture
Solar Cell
Maunfacture
PolySilicon
Manufacturers
Silicon Wafer
Manufacturers
Dominated by large semi conductor cos.
Fragmented
Q Cells
Sharp Solar
Kyocera
BP Solar
SunTech
Motech
….
Oligpolistic
Top 5 control
85% of
market
Fragmented
Fragmented
Concentrated
Top 10
control 70%
of market
Hemlock
Tokyuama
Wacker
Chemie
REC
MEMC
Shinetsu
SUMCO
Wacker
MEMC
Komatsu
Solar System
Developer
Localized

16. Top Solar PV cos.
Cos Location Capacity (MW) - 2007
Sharp Electronics Japan 725
Q Cells Germany 547
SunTech Power China 320
First Solar USA 317
SolarWorld Germany 280
Sanyo Japan 270
BP Solar UK 257
Kyocera Japan 250
Motech Taiwan 240
Solarfun China 240
SunPower USA 214
Source: CIOL

17. Chinese PV Manufacturers: Just a sample!
Yingli Canadian
Solar
LDK Solar JA Solar SunTech
Power
Solarfun
Business PV modules PV modules
Silicon
reclaiming
Wafer PV Cells PV Modules Cells and
modules
Capacity 200 MW 250
MW(2008)
580 MW
(2008)
25 – plant
under
construction
540 MW 240 MW
Revenues
(USD million)
– FY 07
556 608 1.03 B NA 1.7 B 81
Location Near Beijing Ontario,
Canada/Jiang
su
Jiangxi, China
Sunnyvale,
CA
Shanghai,
China
Milipitas, CA
Jiangsu,
China/SFO,
USA
Jiangsu,
China
Listed on NYSE NASDAQ NYSE NASDAQ NYSE NASDAQ
Integration
(forward/bac
kward)
16 000 MT
Polysilicon
manufacturie
Global
expanstion in
sales &
service
Caveat: I have tried to collect this data from the site and annual reports. But I am not sure I have read all of the data off accurately!

18. Indian PV Manufacturers
Comany Moser Baer Photo Voltaic Limited Tata BP Solar
Business Cells and Modules Solar Products with a focus on developing
cos applications (street lighting, heating
systems, lanterns…)
Capacity 120 MW 180 MW
Revenues (USD
million) – FY 07
Not Available Not available
Location New Delhi, India Bangalore
Investors Subsidiary of Moser Baer India Ltd JV between BP and Tatas
Management Ravi Khanna, CEO Syamal Gupta, Chairman , K.Subramanya,
CEO
Investments Solaria & Stion (Thin film technology),
SolFocus (CPV)
-

19. Traditional PV- Innovative Manufacturing
Business Solaria Evergreen Solar
Technology Proprietary manufacturing process to reduce
the amount of silicon required in cells.
Proprietary String Ribbon TM manufacturing
technology to reduce the amount of
polysilicon
Investors Sigma Partners, NGen Partners, Q Cells,
Moser Baer,
Total
Investment
Amount
USD 77 million over three rounds NASDAQ (ESLR) – 2007 revenues (including
EverQ) was USD 252 million
Management Suvi Sharma (CEO), Leslie Danziger
(Founder), Alelie Funcell (COO)
Richard M. Feldt (President & CEO), Rodolfo
Archbold (VP – Operations)
Location Fremont, CA /manufacturing in Phillipines Marlbaro, MA/production in Germany thru
EverQ a JV between Q Cells AG, Renewable
Energy Corp ASA and Evergreen
Commercial
Systems Range
Minimum power output 50kW/ 1 MW plant
under construction
3-100kW

20. Thinfilm & 3rd Generation PV
OptiSolar Stion Corporation NanoSolar
Business/Products Panel
Manufacturer/Solar
Plant Operator
Module manufacturer Panel Manufacturer
Technology Thin film amorphous
silicon panels
High efficiency thin film modules
based on the work of Howard
Lee
Manufacturing innovations: 1)
semiconductor ink 2)roll printing
3) conductive substrate. Uses
CIGS.
Investors Not Disclosed Khosla Ventures, Braemar Energy
Ventures, Moser Baer
Photovoltaic , Lightspeed
Venture Partners, General
Catalyst Partners
VCs (Benchmark Capital, MDV),
Corporations (AES, EDF, Energy
Capital Partners, Swiss Re,
Riverstone Capital, Mitsui),
Founders of Google, eBay, SAP
Total Investment
Amount
Not Discolosed USD 15 million in Series B USD 300 million
Management Randy Goldstein (CEO),
Marv Keshner (Chief
Scientist)
Chet Farris (President & CEO),
Vineet Dharmadhikari (SVP –
Eng, COO)
Martin Roscheisen (CEO), Brian
Sager (VP – Corporate
Development)
Location Hayward,
CA/manufacturing in
Phillipines
San Jose, CA San Jose, CA

21. Thinfilm PV & 3rd Generation PV….contd
Ava Solar SoloPower Konarka Technologies
Business/Products Modules Cells and Modules Modules
Technology Cadmium telluride
(CdTe) thin-film
technology
Copper-Indium-Gallium-
Selenide (CIGS) thin film
technology.
Polymer-based, organic
photovoltaic (OPV) technology
Investors Invus LP, DCM,
Technology Partners,
GLG Partners,
Bohemian
Companies, LLC
Crosslink Capital , Firsthand
Capital Management, Convexa
Capital and Alf Bjørseth, co-
founder of REC Group.
3i, Draper Fisher Jurvetson,
New Enterprise Associates,
Good Energies, Vanguard
Ventures, Partech
International , Chevron
Technology Ventures, Asenqua
Ventures, Massachusetts
Green Energy Fund, NGEN
Partners and Angeleno Group
Total Investment
Amount
USD 104+ million USD 30 million in second
round
USD 125 million in multiple
rounds (since 2001)
Management Dr. Pascal Noronha,
CEO of AVA Solar, Dr.
Neil Morris (Sr. VP
Engineering)
Homayoun Talieh, CEO,
President , Dr. Bulent Basol,
CTO, Dr. Jay Ashjaee, Vice
President of Engineering
Howard Berke (Founder), Rick
Hess (CEO), Dr. Christoph
Brabec (CTO)
Location Fort Collins, CO San Jose, CA Nuremberg, Germany

22. Thinfilm PV & 3rd Generation PV….contd
Solyndra United Solar Ovonics Oerlikon Solar
Business/Products Roof Top Modules
(BIPV)
Roof Top Modules (BIPV)
Technology CIGS thin film PV
cells in glass sealed
cylindrical modules
Triple junction thin film a– si
technology
A-Si and micromorph solar
cells with ability to absorb
infra red as well as visible light
Investors Artis, Argonaut
Private Equity, CMEA
Ventures, Rockport
Capital, US Venture
partners, Masdar ,
Madrone Capital
Partners, Redpoint
Ventures
Subsidiary of Energy
Conversion Devices
(NADAQ:ENER)
Business Unit of the Oerlikon
Group
Total Investment
Amount
USD 600 million (!!!!) _ _
Management Dr. Chris Gronet
(CEO),
Mark Morelli, CEO, Subhendu
Guha (Chairman and SVP, ECD)
Location Fremont, CA Michigan, USA Switzerland

23. Thin Film based Utility Scale Plants
Project Name
(all OptiSolar)
Operator Plant Location Utility Capacity Status/Expecte
d
Topaz Opti Solar San Luis Obispo
County, CA
PG&E 550 MW In the 2011-
2013 time
Sarnia Opti Solar Ontario, Canada Ontario
Power
Authority
6*10 MW 2010
Tilbury Opti Solar Ontario, Canada Ontario
Power
Authority
2*10MW 2010
Petrolia Opti Solar Ontario, Canada Ontario
Power
Authority
1*10MW 2010

24. CSP
Solar Reserve Ausra BrightSource/Luz II
Technology CSP with Power Towers and
molten salt storage
Compact Linear Fresnel
Reflector
CSP
Investors Citi Alternate Investments,
Sustainable Development
Initiatives, Good Energies, US
Renewables Group, PCG CETF,
Argonaut Private Equity,
Nimes Capital Credit Suisse
Khosla Ventures and Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers,
Starfish Ventures (Australia),
Generation Investment
Management (London) and
KERN Partners, Canada
VantagePoint Venture Partners,
BP Alternate Energy, Google.org,
MorganStanley, DFJ, Chevron
Technology Ventures, StatOil
Hydro Venture, Black River
Investment
Amount
USD 280 million in two rounds USD 100 million over two
rounds
USD 160 million over 3 rounds
Management Terry Murphy (CEO), Kevin
Smith (COO), William R. Gould
(CTO)
Robert E Fishman (President,
CEO & Chairman) , Dr David
Mills (Chief Scientific Officer
and Founder)
John Woolard (CEO –
Brightsource)
Arnold Goldman (Chairman –
Brightsource)
Israel Kroizer – President LuzII
Location Santa Monica, CA Palo Alto, CA BrightSource – Oakland, CA
LuzII – Isreal
Plant Details Not Available Bakersfield, CA 5 MW –under
construction
Carrizo Plains : 177 MW with
PG&E – under plan
Negev Desert, Israel – 20 MW
(completed)
Ivanpah, California - 500 MW
(first phase 100 MW to come up
in 2011)

25. CSP…contd
eSolar
Technology CSP plants with dual axis heliostat mirrors, pre-fab technology
and modular construction.
Investors Google.org, Oak Investment Partners, IdeaLab
Investment Amount USD 110 million in one round
Management Asif Ansari (CEO),
Location Pasadena, CA
Plant Details 245 MW plant in Antelope Valley, California

26. Concentrated PV
Energy Innovations SolFocus Green Volts
Technology Tight integration of High
efficiency triple-junction
cells, proprietary Fresnel
lens and tracking system.
Multi –junction solar cells and
the optical design of the
concentrator
2 Axis solar tracker. Allows
plants to be built near
communities, saving n
transmission lines.
Investors IdeaLab, MDV-Mohr
Davidow Ventures
New Enterprise Associates
(NEA), Moser Baer,
Metasystem Group, NGEN
Partners, Yellowstone Capital,
David Gelbaum
Avista Corporation, Greenlight
Energy Resources, Oak
Investment Partners
Total
Investment
Amount
USD 15 million in Series B USD 92 million since 2005 USD 40 million in 2 rounds
Management Bill Gross (Founder &
CEO), Mark Henderson,
Gregg Bone
Gary D. Conley (CEO &
Chairman), Mark Crowley
(President)
Bob Cart (Chairman & CE0),
Birute Adams (COO)
Location Pasadena, CA Mt. View, CA/Europe –
Spain/Moser-Baer
manufacturing partner
SFO, CA
Plants Minimum power output
50kW/ 1 MW plant under
construction –
commercial systems
shipping in 2009
200 KW installed in
Spain/Plants of 3 MW & 10
MW in progress (Spain)
2 MW plant under
construction.

27. Solar Plant Operator – US (a sample)
Solar Power Partners SunPower Corp Solel
Technology Works across all solar energies Manufactures and installs:
Technology USPs: 1. High
efficiency panels 2. Single
axis solar tracker
CSP & Concentrated PV
Investors United Commercial Bank,
Globespan Capital Partners,
the Enlightened World
Foundation, Carrelton Asset
Management, Dry Creek
Ventures, Silicon Valley
Technology Group, Energy
Investors Fund
Listed on NASDAQ (SPWRA
and SPWRB)
Not Available
Total Investment
Amount
USD 160 million of equity, debt
and project finance
NA Not Available
Management Alexander v. Welczeck
(President & CEO), Hugh Kuhn
(VP – Operations &
Technology)
Thomas Werner (CEO),
Marty T Neese (COO),
Surinder S Bedi (VP-Quality),
Thomas Dinwoodie ,
Founder
Not Available
Location Mill Valley, CAs San Jose , CA/manufacturing
in Phillipines
Israel and US
Commercial
Systems Range
37 kW – 2 MW (about 15
projects completed till date)
200KW to 3 MW Solar cooling/heating – 2-
3MW

28. Solar Plant Operator - Europe
Company AbenGoa Conergy AG
Focus on Solar PV
Also finances and operates projects in other
renewable energies
Technology R&D in both CSP, Photovoltaic systems &
Storage
Management Santiago Seage (Chairman & CEO), Pedro
Robles Sánchez (MD-Spain), Scott Frier (COO
– USA)
Dieter Ammer (CEO), Nikolaus Krane (project
business )
HeadQuarters Spain/operations across the world Germany/operations across world
Commercial
Systems Range
Solar Heat – 2-3MW
CSP – 20MW

29. Utility Level Plants…sample
Plant Location Operator Capacity SolarPark
area
Financing
partner
Status/Expect
ed
Bavaria,
Germany
SunPower 10 MW 100 acres Deutshe
Structured
Finance
110% util in
last 2 yrs
Serpa, Portugal SunPower 11MW 130 acres GE Energy
Financial
Services
102% in last
two areas
Air Force Base,
Las Vegas
SunPower 14MW 140 acres NA
Plant Location Operator Capacity Technology Status/Expected
Mojave Desert,
California
Solel 553 MW CSP Construction On
Lebrija,
Andalusia, Spain
Solel 3*50 MW CSP & PV Construction On

30. Utility Level Plants …sample
Plant Location Operator Capacity Land Technology Status/Expected
Phoenix,
Arizona
Abengoa 280 MW 100
acres
CSP Construction On
Sanlucar la
Mayor, Spain
Abengoa 300 MW 1600
acres
CSP & PV 16 MW
commissioned/r
est 2013
Pennsylvania Conergy 3 MW 16 acres PV Commissioned
South Korea Conergy 25 MW 144
acres
PV 20 MW
commissioned
Bavaria,
Germany
Conergy 6 MW Thin film Commissioned

31. Rural Applications
Promethean Power Systems SELCO
Business/Pro
ducts
Solar Power Refrigerator Solar Lighting and Solar Heating. Finances the
products too.
Innovation Innovations that allow solar power to be used
for thermoelectric cooling (when a current is
passed through a circuit of two dissimilar
conductors, there will be a rise or fall in
temperature at the junction depending on
the direction of the current flow).
In the application space:
Silkworm farmers
Street Hawkers
Investors Quercus Trust
Investment
Amount
Undisclosed
Management Sorin Grama, Sam White Dr H Harish Hande
Location Cambridge, CA with field trials in India Bangalore
System Power
Range

32. Summary: The Solar Map – Trends & Opportunities
Concentrated
Solar
CSP CPV
Plants are still under construction
New Plants may not come up till 2010
Costs will come down depending on which technology works
PV Traditional Silicon based Innovations on Silicon Thin Film & 3rd Gen.
Solar Cell Manufacturers are all sold out for the next two years
Developments in PV technology is expected to bring down costs to grid parity levels
Applications
Technology
Residential & Comercial Utility Rural
This market will grow with
consumer awareness and
government subsidies
Plants are still under
construction.
Scalability yet to be
proved.
This market is likely to grow
quickly as often there is no
alternate power if infrastructure
(incl. financing) is made
available.

33. License
• Author: Sanjoy Sanyal (sanjoysanyal@gmail.com)
• Attributions:
– Specific diagrams and tables have been attributed to their source
– For all cos. specific information I have largely depended on website material
– For all industry data :Wikipedia and the US DOE site on Renewable energy
• Copyright (c) 2008 Sanjoy Sanyal. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later
version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-
Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
"GNU Free Documentation License".