Air Liquide has become the partner of two of the largest solar science parks in the world, each with a production capacity of over 1,000 MW per annum.
In Singapore, Air Liquide will supply all carrier and specialty gases as well as on-site services to REC’s new Gigawatt wafer and solar cells production campus. This project is the largest photovoltaic investment underway in South-East Asia, with a planned combined production of 1,500MW per annum. REC is the world’s leading supplier of Si materials to the PV industry with planned poly-Si and Si wafer production capacity of more than 20,000 tons per year and 2,000 MW per year, respectively.
Meanwhile, in Wuxi, China, Air Liquide has signed a contract to supply carrier gases to Suntech existing gigawatt-sized facilities. Suntech is the world’s second largest solar cell manufacturer with production capacity exceeding 1,000 MW per annum.
Those two contracts, combined with the existing supply agreement with the PV market leader Q-Cells in the biggest production site worldwide in Germany and also in Malaysia announced on 19 January 2009, make Air Liquide the number one partner of the three largest production sites in the world. In parallel, multiple long-term supply contracts have been awarded to Air Liquide by Bosch-Ersol for its new thin-film plant in Erfurt (Germany) and by five new solar cell companies in Europe and Asia. The company plans to invest €13 million globally to meet the needs of al its customers.
Gases used in the PV industry
Gases are used at all stages of the solar cell manufacturing process to produce:
- Poly-silicon: high-volume of nitrogen (N2) and hydrogen (H2)
- Si wafers: large quantities of nitrogen, argon (Ar) and helium (He)
- Crystalline-Si cells: carrier gas (N2) & specialty gases such as silane (SiH4), ammonia (NH3)
- Si thin-film cells: carrier gases (N2, H2), specialty gases (SiH4, NF3, dopant mixtures) and coating precursor materials
Francisco Martins, Vice-President World Business Line Electronics of the Air Liquide Group, declared: “We are pleased to be the chosen supplier of the three largest solar cells production campuses in the world. These new signatures with PV market leaders confirm the success of our solar global offer, reinforcing our number one position in a fast-changing industry. The photovoltaic activity is at the crossroads of Energy and the Environment, two growth drivers of the Air Liquide Group.”
