Manufacturing Improvements in the Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) Project

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

    Abstract

    The Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology Project (PVMaT) is a government/industry research and development (R&D) partnership between the U.S. federal government (through the U.S. Department of Energy [DOE]) and members of the U.S. PV industry. The goals of PVMaT are to help the U.S. PV industry improve module manufacturing processes and equipment; accelerate manufacturing cost reductions for PVmodules, balance-of-systems components, and integrated systems; increase commercial product performance and reliability; and enhance the investment opportunities for substantial scale-ups of U.S.-based PV manufacturing plant capacities. The approach for PVMaT has been to cost-share risk taking by industry as it explores new manufacturing options and ideas for improved PV modules and othercomponents, advances system and product integration, and develops new system designs, all of which will lead to overall reduced system life-cycle costs for reliable PV end products. The PVMaT Phase 4A module manufacturing R&D projects are just being completed, and initial results for the work directed primarily to module manufacture are reported in this paper. Fourteen new Phase 5A subcontractshave also just been awarded, and planned R&D areas for the ten focussed on module manufacture are described. Finally, government funding, subcontractor cost-sharing, and a comparison of the relative efforts by PV technology throughout the PVMaT project are presented.
    Original languageAmerican English
    Number of pages7
    StatePublished - 1998
    Event2nd World Conference and Exhibition on Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conversion - Vienna, Austria
    Duration: 6 Jul 199810 Jul 1998

    Conference

    Conference2nd World Conference and Exhibition on Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conversion
    CityVienna, Austria
    Period6/07/9810/07/98

    NREL Publication Number

    • NREL/CP-520-24923

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