By Charlie Demerjian

APPLIED MATERIALS is getting into the solar power business in a big way, and its customers are starting to break cover. One of them, Signet Solar, had its coming out party today.
Signet is aiming its panels at larger scale solar installations, partially because it makes larger panels. Most current solar panel are in the 1 x .5m range, that is, not all that big. What AMAT brings to the party is the same tools used to make obscenely huge TVs.

If you think about it, an LCD TV is a big sheet of glass with some really small metallic lines drawn on it in precise ways. A solar panel is a big sheet of glass with some really small metallic lines drawn on it in precise ways. The details may vary, but many of the hard parts are the same, that is moving big sheets of glass around with micron tolerances.

With the new AMAT toys, Signet is planning on making 2.2 x 2.5m panels, or about 10x the area of the current mainstream panels. Just like LCD TVs, the same growth curve is hitting solar, and it will be nothing short of a really good thing.

Signet is putting the first line in Dresden because of the local talent. Much of the same semiconductor manufacturing skills that are prevalent in the area can be put to good use in solar manufacturing.

They ware aiming for about 20MW of panels to be made in 2008 growing to 60MW or so once capacity has fully ramped. Once this is done, the next phase is to roll the line out and put production close to where it is needed in a cookie-cutter way.

Their target markets are large solar farms, remote habitation and rural electrification. All of these things become more affordable with a semi-local source of panels, exactly what Signet is aiming to do.

Currently, solar panels are in the $8-9/W range installed. Signet hopes to bring that down to $3/W by 2010. One of the key parts to this is the size of the panels, bigger is better. The goal is to have $1.25/W panels when production starts in 2008, and drop that to sub-$1 by 2010.

It will be really interesting if they can pull it off, a third reduction in installed costs coupled with the rising cost of fossil fuels makes solar quite attractive. The cost curves are edging closer every day.

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