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Credit: SolarWorld.

A lot of attention is paid to making photovoltaic modules more cost-effective by reducing the costs associated with the active materials, and, indeed silicon prices seem to be dropping (with estimates of somewhere between 5 and 7 percent for the first quarter of 2011, after similar drops in 4Q 2010) despite double-digit growth in the polysilicon applications market.

But don’t forget about the non-active materials side of PV units, which comprise about one-third of a crystalline silicon PV module’s cost. A new report from Lux Research suggests that there are substantial and new opportunities for suppliers and module manufacturers to tinker with some of the key non-active components of crystalline silicon PV modules.

Of particular interest to readers of this blog are two glass-rleated opportunities that Lux spotlights: glass frontsheets for PV modules and antireflective coatings for these frontsheets.

Lux analyst and lead author of the report, Jason Eckstein, expects that float glass will replace rolled, textured glass as the material of choice for PV units. He says float glass makers are now offering tempered low-iron glasses that come closer to matching what had been the superior transmittance levels of rolled glass. The cheaper manufacturing costs of float glass will make the transition all but certain. According to Eckstein, SolarWorld (production facilities in Germany, Sweden and the United States) has already begun using float glass.

Eckstein also predicts that glass with antireflective coatings will also become standard on frontsheets in both crystalline silicon and thin-film modules. The benefits of minimizing reflectance is fairly obvious, and Eckstein says that AR coatings are available for less than $4 per square meter. The boost in module efficiency (about 3 to 6 percent, depending on coating and geographical location) from the coatings easily justifies the added cost.

Lux’s report is titled, “Critical to Quality: Illuminating Drivers for Change in Solar Non-Active Materials.”

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Credit: Copyright 2010 by The Freedonia Group

The research company Freedonia Group predicts that worldwide hydrogen demand will continue to climb, growing at a 3.4 percent annual pace through 2013.

Oftentimes the term “hydrogen economy” is associated with emerging energy and transportation technologies, but a new report from Freedonia, World Hydrogen, indicates the growth primarily is being driven by petroleum refining enterprises that require more hydrogen to produce low-sulfur fuels. Other big drivers are chemical, semiconductor, float glass, metal components and food industries (remember the margarine commercials referring to hydrogenation?). The report predicts that 475 billion cubic meters will be required in 2013.

Geographically speaking, although North America currently is the world’s largest hydrogen consumer, Freedonia says trends indicate that the Asia/Pacific region will jump from third to first place in the consumption roster. In fact, consumption in the Asia/Pacific region, according to the report, is growing 300 percent faster than in North America.

The 336-page World Hydrogen report is available for $5,300 from Freedonia.

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Until recently, Sage Electrochromics made electrically tintable windows on a relatively small scale. All that’s about to change. On Friday, the DOE announced that it would provide Sage with a $72 million loan guarantee to build a 250,000 sq. ft. plant in Faribault, Minn.

The company’s SageGlass windows can turn from clear to opaque and back with a click of the switch. (Okay, not literally that quick, but more like in 3-5 minutes after a small amount of voltage is supplied or cut off.) Sage says its product is the only commercially available, electronically tintable window glass in the world.

The loan nicely complements a $31 million Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit the company snagged from the DOE earlier this year.

Sage says its panes are coated with five layers of ceramic materials and use a low voltage:

“When voltage [less than 5V DC] is applied to these layers in their “clear” state, they darken as lithium ions and associated electrons transfer from the counter electrode to the electrochromic electrode layer.Reversing the voltage polarity causes the ions and associated electrons to return to their original layer.”

The company uses a vacuum-deposition sputtering process coating conventional float glass. A second piece of glass is added to complete the sandwich, which is surrounded by an aluminum frame. The units can transmit less than 4% of the visible light in their tinted state.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, according to the DOE, says SageGlass could cut a building’s heating and air conditioning equipment size by up to 25% and reduce overall cooling loads for commercial buildings up to 20% (by lowering peak power demand) besides shrinking lighting cost. Use of SageGlass may provide LEED credits.

While the glass panels currently operate only in either clear or opaque modes, the company says it will sell an intermediate-level tint system later this year. Sage also says PV-powered units are under development - a good match because of the low-voltage requirements.

The units can be connected to either a simple wall switch or as units integrated into a building management control systems. They also come in four colors (interior appearance - the exterior of appearance of the four are the same): black, green, blue and gray. The largest size currently available is 40″ x 60″ (in either dimension, W x L, or L x W).

The company offers an interesting portfolio on its website of SageGlass installations.

Faribault is located about 25 miles south of St. Paul. The company says the new factory will create about 160 new jobs.

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Credit: David Shankbone, used with permission under Creative Common/GNU license.

According to recent press reports, large glass companies, such as Corning and Guardian Industries, claim that even as the economy improves, they are unlikely to bring domestic employment and production back of commodity-type glass products such as float glass to pre-recession levels.

“Those who are looking through the rear-view mirror, waiting for the glass industry in this country to come back, should know it isn’t going to come back, not the way it was,” Russell Ebeid, Guardian’s chairman, said in an interview with Louis Uchitelle of the New York Times. (Glass Global also provides an edited version of the Times article.)

Labor organizations and some small U.S. manufacturers argue that many emerging overseas manufacturers, such as Chinese glassmakers, are competitive in the United States’ marketplace because they have received significant government subsidies. The subsidies help offset, for example, the cost of shipping glass across the Pacific. Fuel price fluctuations and its affect on shipping have undermined some of the price advantages in certain commodity exports - not just float glass – from Asian emerging markets.

According to the Times article, the Guardian float-glass plant in Carleton, Mich., is operating at less than 85 percent of capacity. Employment has fallen to 410 people, from 520 in January 2008.

Guardian’s Ebeid, however, disagrees with what it sees as the premise of the Times piece, namely, that the companies, themselves, are to blame for the shift of the glass business overseas. In a followup letter to the editor, Ebeid wrote,

“Guardian Industries has grown by building a strong American manufacturing base — only then pursuing global business opportunities. We manufacture close to our markets to be most competitive — so we have built eight float-glass manufacturing plants throughout the United States, all running continuously. When Guardian expands in new markets, jobs are actually added in the United States for support and technology development personnel.

Increasingly, our customers in emerging markets want energy-efficient windows, mirrors and advanced architectural glass. Guardian products have met these needs with recent American investment in high-technology equipment, research and development.

For very high-technology products, we continue to export glass from our American plants to China, Japan, Brazil and many other markets. In our view, the American glass market is not declining.”

Another float-glass maker, Pilkington North America runs two production lines in Rossford, Ohio. The Japanese-owned company makes glass for the automotive industries. A Pilkington spokesperson told Glass Global that production there “have been down over the last 12 to 18 months,” she said.

“The U.S. glass industry [sic] is no doubt at a critical juncture,” the spokesperson said the Obama administration’s stimulus package like the advanced energy manufacturing credit will help.

The Times story noted that U.S. glass makers still had the upper hand in some domestic glass markets. For example, it reported that beer and wine bottles are still made in America by companies such as Owens-Illinois. Anchor Hocking and Libbey still produce consumer tableware and some specialty glass products. The Times points out that Anchor Hocking, which has one Canadian plant but no overseas facilities, has leveraged its production capabilities to meet the demands of picky big-time retailers, such as Walmart, who are notorious for demanding just-in-time deliveries from suppliers.

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