IBM Links with Japan’s TOK to Develop Solar Technology

NEW YORK (Reuters) – IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has joined forces with semiconductor process company Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) (4186.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to develop more efficient solar power technologies to cut the cost of the clean energy source, the companies said on Monday.

The move is the latest by large technology companies to enter theburgeoning field of photovoltaic solar products, which turn sunlightinto electricity without releasing the pollutants that are emitted fromcoal, oil and nuclear power generation.

International Business Machines Corp will contribute its expertisein manufacturing cells, while TOK will bring its technology used in thesemiconductor industry and for coating LCD panels.

The partnership is seeking to create techniques that double theefficiency of thin film solar modules, making them capable ofconverting more of the sun’s rays into electricity.

IBM Research’s Supratik Guha, who leads its solar photovoltaicactivities, said the companies do not plan to enter the solar moduleproduction business, but hope to license their technology to producersin the next two to three years.

"We’ve already been in discussions with photovoltaic manufacturers," Guha told Reuters in an interview.

"There are problems to be resolved," he said, "but this is the time we’re starting to talk to them."

The partnership will focus on developing new methods for printingcopper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) cells that can turn more than 15percent of sunlight into power — a significant improvement on the 6percent to 12 percent efficiency that current solar CIGS makers haveachieved in their fabrication plants.

Guha declined to specify the companies’ projected sales from thetechnology that will come from their link-up, but described thepotential market as "huge."

Currently, an estimated 90 percent of photovoltaic solar equipmentuses silicon to turn sunlight into electricity. That technology is moreefficient than CIGS, often converting more than 20 percent of sunlightinto power.

But those cells are much thicker than thin-film applications,limiting how they can be deployed, and they rely on silicon, which hasskyrocketed in price in recent years as the solar industry gobbled uplimited supplies.

IBM looked into various solar technologies before settling on CIGS, Guha said,

"Traditional silicon is a very mature field already, the scope fordramatic improvement is probably not there," he said. "We felt thatthis is where we could make a bigger impact."

Researchers at the U.S. Energy Department’s National RenewableEnergy Laboratory announced in April they had set a new efficiencyrecord of 19.9 percent for CIGS cells, nearing the record formulticrystalline silicon cells of 20.3 percent.

However, no company has yet to near that CIGS record on the factoryfloor, where cells must be quickly mass produced in a cost effectivemanner.

Guha said the goal of the partnership was to create a process formaking the cells cheaply enough that they reach "grid parity," thelevel in which solar power is competitive with traditional forms ofelectricity generation.

"I think that if we can get to a module cost of less than $1 perwatt, and be able to keep a handle on the system costs, then one shouldbe able to get to grid parity … photovoltaics still need roughly a 2(times efficiency) improvement," he said.

"We strongly feel that we have a shot."

(Reporting by Matt Daily; Editing by Carol Bishopric)