LG Display Nurtures a Solar Strategy

By Charles Annis – Vice President, Manufacturing Research, DisplaySearch

On June 16, the second largest LCD manufacturer issued a press release called “LG Display to Nurture its Thin-Film Solar Cell Business as a Future Growth Driver.” The press release was quickly picked up by FPD and PV newsletters, as well as many major business publications, making it big news. Even so, none of the articles, including the original press release, offer many specifics on the company’s photovoltaic (PV) strategy.

Frankly, our channel checks turned up only slightly more hard information. Why? Because it seems that although LGD has decided to officially kick off a PV development program with some fanfare, it has yet to finalize many of the details.

Here is what we did hear:

• The thin film technology will be a-Si. Since LGD suggested in the press release it plans to increase conversion efficiency to 12%, it is fair to assume they also plan to develop tandem or triple junction architectures.
• The glass size should be a Gen 5 equivalent.
• Initial capacity will probably be around 20 MW.

However, manufacturing equipment reportedly has yet to be ordered, and the potential vendor selection includes both domestic and foreign firms. Equipment delivery dates and long term expansion plans are still all on the drawing board.

The LGD program is apparently separate from the previously announced LG Electronics plan to build out over 200 MW of crystalline silicon cell capacity at its now shut-down A1 PDP factory.

More details about LGD’s plans and a summary of the other top-five LCD companies’ plans are available in an article posted on the Presentations, Talks and Articles page on our website.