Guess Why Honda is using Thin Film Solar Panels to power Dealerships and Auto Plants

It is not widely known that ,Honda is a manufacturers of CIGs thin film solar panels alongwith the likes of TSMC, Solar Frontier and others. Honda has been in the solar panel manufacturing business of the last 3-4 years though its capacity remains small and its panels not very efficient. Like many conglomerates , Honda too entered the solar industry during the boom times and now would be finding the going hard . Note a number of Japanese solar companies have existed the business like Sumco and others. However Honda which remains a very marginal player in the global solar business is not going away . Instead it is using its own solar panels to power its own dealerships and auto plants.

Honda,the Japanese auto giant has also joined the Solar Energy Race by selling Thin Film Modules based on CIGs technology.Japan’s conglomerates like Sharp,Kyocera,Mitsubishi and Panasonic already have big solar manufacturing operations with Sharp being the largest Solar Company in the World.Honda which has a small presence in the Solar Energy through its subsidiary Honda Soltec is expanding its lines of modules for the domestic market.NoteSouth Korean Chaebols like Hanwha,Samsung,Hyundai and Taiwanese biggies like TSMCand AUO have a put in huge investments into solar manufacturing recently

Honda’s modules have an efficiency of 11.6% which seems lower than those claimed by the TSMC-Stion,Miasole and Q-Cells.These companies are claiming 13% efficiency though none of these companies have large scale commercial production as of now.Q-Cells  and Miasole are at the head of the CIGs pack with companies like Nanosolar,Solyndra,Solar Frontier and TSMC-Stion closely following.CIGs technology is said to be the best thin film technology better than the Cd-Te technology used by First Solar and a-Si technology used by Sharp and the now bankrupt Applied Materials thin film division.

The reason it is using its own CIGs solar panels is most probably the fact that nobody else is buying its solar panels and rather than waste them it is powering its plants with them . Having a small under 100 mw plant these days is totally unviable and that too for a thin film technology .First Solar  which is the biggest thin film player in the world is finding the going tough ,so Honda Soitec would be finding the current situation super tough.

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced the installation of a 9 kilowatt-capacity solar power generation system at the Adachi Odai location of the Honda Cars Tokyo Chuo dealer network. The installation kicks off a project to install Honda Soltec(1) solar power generation systems with a total capacity of 1 megawatt at Honda automobile dealership locations in Japan by March 31, 2014.

Striving to realize a low carbon society, Honda has been installing solar power generation systems at Honda operations in Japan. The combined capacity of solar power generation systems installed to date has reached 3.3 megawatts, the largest in Japan among all automakers operating. Honda has been already installing solar power generation systems at some Honda automobile dealership locations; however, in order to further extend the effort to reduce CO2 emissions in the area of sales, Honda made a decision to pursue this large-scale installation of solar power generation systems that includes the installation of a display monitor which shows current power generating situation of solar panels to customers who visit the dealership location. Furthermore, Honda is planning to install a 2.6-megawatt Honda Soltec solar power generation system to the new Yorii Plant, which is scheduled to become operational in 2013. This will be the largest solar power generation system installed at an automobile production plant in Japan.

Appendix

Manufacturers of Solar Thin Film Panels

1) First Solar – First Solar is the only Solar Thin Film Manufacturer in the world and a benchmark for other thin film companies thinking of making it big.The company was promoted by Wal-Mart promoters and has seen remarkable growth in the last few.This US based company uses Cadmium Tellurium (Cd-Te) Technology and  is the lowest cost panel producer in the world today if you don’t include any penalty for low efficiency.Even if you penalize the Cd-Te Technology for its lower efficiency vis-a-vis the higher efficiency crystalline technology,First Solar is clearly the leader with a core cost of 74c/watt.The company has a roadmap of  reducing the cost to 52c/watt by 2014 and given its track record it seems quite achievable.There is little doubt about First Solar’s ability to survive and flourish due to its massive first mover advantage.

2) Sharp – Sharp,the Japanese Zaibatsu known more for its Electronics Products is also the world’s No 1 Company in terms Solar Module Revenues.Despite its leadership in c-Si Technology,it has shifted focus to a-Si thin film due to higher costs.Sharp has started shipping a-Si modules from its 1 GW capacity plant in Sakai.With its established distribution strengths and technological abilities in LCD Technology,Sharp is one company that can survive the c-Si onslaught.With most of the a-Si thin film competitors bankrupt or in a moribund state,Sharp can capitalize to completely capture this space.However the cost structure of Sharp is not clearly known right now to make a clear call on how this will turn out.Also a 10% efficiency while decent for a-Si technology fall far short of the 13% claims by CIGS start-ups like Miasole.

3) Solar Frontier – Solar Frontier is a subsidiary of Showa Shell Sekiyu and is listed on the Japanese Stock Exchange.The Company has big plans for the Solar Energy Market planning to increase its capacity by more than 10 times in 2011 to around 1 Gw in total.All its 3 plants are located in Miyazaki in Japan and uses previous plasma plant of Hitachi.Solar Frontier claims 11.5% efficiency for its CIS modules which are expected to go upto 14% by 2014.The Company is spending around $1 Billion in Capex for building the 1 GW capacity implying roughly $1 capex/watt which is not exactly cheap though not very expensive either.