This fall, a brand new solar company announced a major addition to U.S. manufacturing with its gigawatt-production plans. Violet Power is setting up in a 600,000-sq.-ft facility across the street from REC Silicon in Moses Lake, Washington, and will have 500 MW of crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturing capacity by Q2 2021 with another 500 MW of full panel production by the end of next year. The plan is to eventually scale to 5 GW of production and 1,000 manufacturing employees.
The announcement gives a boost to domestic silicon solar cell production — the United States currently has none after Panasonic left the Buffalo, New York, facility it shared with Tesla earlier this year. And Violet Power’s promise of solar cell manufacturing allowed for the reopening of the mothballed REC Silicon plant and a push for a low-carbon solar supply chain across the country.
Violet Power has many solar-educated executives steering the ship, including founder Desari Strader (previously with SolarWorld) and CEO Charlie Gay. Gay has been working in solar manufacturing for 45 years and was one of the first employees at ARCO Solar, which opened the first large-scale commercial manufacturing factory in 1980. Most recently, Gay was director of the Solar Energy Technology Office with the U.S. Department of Energy. We spoke with Gay earlier this month to get all the details on the new solar cell and panel manufacturing outfit in the United States.
Violet Power solar panels will be highly durable with a production warranty of 50 years
Gay said he wants to take advantage of the knowledge the industry gained in making solar panels in the 1980s and translate that to the longest and best performing modules on the market.
SunFlex Solar co-founder Kate Fisher inspects the embossed aluminum foil at the heart of Violet Power’s new module deisgn. Photo courtesy of SunFlex Solar
“At ARCO Solar, we carried out research on manufacturing processes and materials, and included in that was the development of encapsulation polymers that are important to the longevity of a module,” he said.
Together with DuPont, ARCO formulated modified versions of a thermoplastic called polyvinyl butyral (PVB). ARCO narrowed down the encapsulate formula to three recipes and made modules using each. The panels were installed in Europe in 1982 and just recently decommissioned, all the while monitored and tested by independent research labs in Italy and Switzerland. One of the encapsulate recipes led to the panels retaining 95% of the power they had 35 years earlier when they were initially installed.
Violet Power will use that durable and reliable PVB encapsulant on its panels made in the 2020s.
“The encapsulation is generally the weakest link in long-term durability,” Gay said. “Having a set of experiences with blending up a proprietary mix of stabilizers and UV absorbers into advanced polymers that have evolved over the course of the past 40 years gives us confidence about being able to make a module that’s built to last.”
The panels will also use interdigitated back contact (IBC) technology licensed from ISC Konstanz in Germany. The Zebra-branded IBC cell architecture will be paired with an aluminum flex circuit developed by SunFlex Solar out of Arizona.
“The printed circuit board is a large sheet of foil that is bonded to the solar cell which allows for about 85% of the metal on the solar cell to be eliminated. Typically those metal layers are expensive silver-based materials,” Gay said. “So we can take a lot of the cost out of the back-contact solar cell by substituting aluminum foil, which [also allows] the module to operate at a lower temperature.
“The lower temperature will mean greater energy delivery, and it’ll substantially extend the time of use in the field before folks begin to think about decommissioning or recycling,” he continued.
Execs chose Washington for its manufacturing base to keep a low carbon footprint
Violet Power’s production facility in Moses Lake, Washington
With a growing movement for a decarbonized solar supply chain in the United States, Violet Power chose the Pacific Northwest as its production headquarters to make a statement. The company’s facility in Moses Lake, Washington, gets its electricity from hydropower produced at the Grand Coulee Dam and delivered through the Bonneville Power Administration transmission system. Violet Power will first source its silicon wafers from NorSun, a manufacturer in Norway that also uses hydropower for electricity. Later receiving materials from the restarted ingot and wafer production at REC Silicon next door, Violet Power’s silicon solar cells will be sustainable and responsibly produced.
“We wanted to have a low carbon footprint associated with our manufacturing and be in proximity to a potential upstream supply of silicon and have the ability to also link in with glass production that’s based in the State of Washington,” Gay said.
Violet Power’s current facility can accommodate 1 GW of cell and module production. The company also has access to 162 acres of land around the building that could allow for an additional 4 GW of expansion.
Residential customers are going to love Violet Power solar panels
While the immediate focus is starting solar cell production by Q2 2021 — for which Gay said Violet Power already has several U.S. customers ready for the high-efficiency back-contact cells — the company will be validating the manufacturability of the SunFlex solar circuit to pump out modules within a year. With no front-busbars and their lower operating temperature, Violet Power panels will be especially ideal for residential applications.
“Rooftop systems tend to operate hotter than any other application because there’s very little space between the back of the module and the roof, so heat gets trapped behind the module,” Gay said. “By making it possible for heat to escape and to reduce the temperature of the module, we’ll be able to take advantage of the high efficiency of an IBC cell with retaining that high efficiency and energy delivery because of the lower operating temperature.”
As much as you all are giving great feedback, I would like to let you all in on a little secret: Ms. Desari Strader is a total scam. She has lied, cheated and stolen her way into this solar arena. She is a very dumb con artist. Ms. Strader has scammed countless employees, oh sorry I mean “Volunteers” in her words. She has as of now (2/16/23) 6 law suits against her personally or the sham “Violet Power” or “Violet Energy”. One of these law suits is a in federal court for a fiduciary crime. Non payment of funds from one state when the employee is in another state constitutes a Federal Crime. Ms. Strader has a scam she has used since she was a state employee in the position of commissioner where she enslaves employees under the guise of “employed” But then never pays them. When the employee gets no pay and then tries to bring law suit, she claims they were “Volunteers”. Well this wont work any longer… The Feds are knocking on her door as I write this.
So all of you potential Violet Power employees out there be warned. Hope this helps anyone to see the light of the huge scam\con that is Ms. Strader/Caldwel.
Why not use PVT solar units like in Europe . They have had these thermal units for a dozen years , they get 50% higher electrical output and by keeping the temp lower and the coolant is used to heat homes or buildings this also increases the life cycle of the units. Why not get the most energy from the cell as possible.
Revelation! Hope it will work. Think resources, production carbon footprint, disposal, instead of counting the money only! I want more expensive panels if they are made on hydropower and can last for 50 years. Not cheap garbage I need to change after 25 years, consuming 3 times the energy during production and 4 times the raw materials.
At my private lab many years ago when we were doing plasma spray metals(gold,nickel aluminide,ti oxides,)we tried to spray glass as a sealer.I was too rough on the circuts.Unless you went to ti wire(pace makers)and process got out of control cost wise.The only thing that worked cost wise is sheet stock glass,with uv cure glue on top.I haven’t done long term tests.
@Solarman, your confusing PVDF (Tedlar backsheet) with the change from unreliable EVA encapsulation (clear glue that holds PVDF backsheet, cells, and glass togeher) for better PVB encapsulation materials more commonly used in things like car windshields.
Why PVB was not used right off the bat, versus EVA, beats the heck out of me. And if they are making these bifacial, not just a long-life monofacial N-type with back-contact – then they need a clear glass or clear PVDF backsheet still.
It’s got to be fueled or concentrated generation in some form that can create the equivalent of 6 suns on every cm^2. Might not work in my back yard for the neighborhood. High tech wind generation same thing, NIMBY kills more plans than are built. In the past parabolic solar heat has had long term temperature and pressure problems, solar PV with Fresnel lens usually causes panel delamination after a few years in service, yellowing and output degradation.
@Kelly Pickerel, thank you for this article, unlike some, I see what has been learned in the past from solar PV development can be applied and create a much more robust product for the future. Some of the past articles here have created a knowledge base of not only what is coming, but what to watch out for. Past articles have pointed out the industry adoption of panel back sheets of PVDF that can craze and crack, allowing moisture entrainment and early panel failures.
This is another “tool” in the design and application of solar PV to one’s home or business. When one has the correct information in front of them, a proper design for a particular installation can be calculated. When one gets to cost, then it can be determined if it is in the best interest of the customer to “overdesign” the system for LID, panel dusting, output loss due to temperature changes and “average” operations conditions. In a relatively cloudy portion of the country, one might want HJT or even CdTe panels for better low light capture. Using the PTC instead of the STD specifications to design a system if the roof is South/East, South/West or actually facing East and West.
I am planning for solar on the Water…any thoughts on possible application….creating false floor on deck for installation site…what problems can I anticipate?
As a first time solar developer, I have found that the biggest issue in utility grade projects is the amount of land consumed by a large scale facility. If any company can produce a single reliable panel that can produce 500 (or more) Kw, developers like me will rush to their door.
500 kW per panel, that would be indeed amazing, considering modern panels are at about 0.5kW at the moment…
Why 50 year ? We will have much better solar technology 50 years later.. Who will want to keep 50 year old computers, for instance? We will have more than just solar panels in the future. We will have concentrated solar power that will not only generate electricity steam but also direct concentrated heat for industrial applications.. Violet Power ‘s solar panels will look so old by then..
the reason for longer life is the headache of disposal of old solar panels..
yet China is planning to quadruple or quintruple solar panel production in the next 10 years.. .. They will still have 20-25 year lifetimes.. So what no big deal..
I fail to see the whole point of the much longer lifetime…. of 50 years.. will it be cost competitive? at 35 cents a watt as any other?
maybe it will be great for space colonies? Dispposal will be a reall pain in the butt up there!
50 years just means they have the guarantee that they will be working for 50 years. What’s wrong with reliability?
Brett, You’re only thinking about the dollar cost of these panels and not the embodied carbon cost to manufacture and recycle these panels. In 30 years, (the end of life of most existing panels being sold today) it will be 2050, the year when we will need to reach carbon neutrality. The recycling and replacement of panels at that time will take the expenditure of a lot of carbon. In my case, I’m not willing to believe in the cult of progress to save us with some new as yet undiscovered technology. What if there’s a war or an economic crisis caused by another pandemic and we don’t have to the capital to invest in newer technologies? I say we install the 50 year lifetime panels as long as they cost the same as the 30 year panels (which they’re projected to). More energy produced over their lifetime per unit of carbon expended now.
Interesting PVB instead of the popular PVDF used now. There is a nascent company, “SunDensity, a solar startup promising 20 percent power output gains* due to specially coated glass, raised $2.5 million in initial financing to begin commercializing its product.” A simple “under glass coating” that converts some of the blue and ultra violet light to more red light allows a 4 to 8 percent solar harvest capture increase. Being able to use known technologies and enhance their harvest efficiency with just a simple coating makes for a cheaper more efficient product to bring to market. It may also have long term effects on LID by shifting some of the high energy light to lower frequency light.
“Violet Power will use that durable and reliable PVB encapsulate on its panels made in the 2020s.” Fifty year panels in the making and a legacy to the next generation in energy responsibility a better path than nuclear waste remediation.
““The printed circuit board is a large sheet of foil that is bonded to the solar cell which allows for about 85% of the metal on the solar cell to be eliminated. Typically those metal layers are expensive silver-based materials,” Gay said. “So we can take a lot of the cost out of the back-contact solar cell by substituting aluminum foil, which [also allows] the module to operate at a lower temperature.””
Incremental technology stacking to get a more efficient and effective producing solar PV panels for decades to come. I would also liked to have an idea of what they expect for solar PV harvest from their IBC cell structure, is it 20%, 21%….25%? Some studying IBC cell technology are saying from 25% up to 26.6% efficiency depending on panel fill space. Add the SunDensity coating and get that solar cell harvest efficiency up to the 29 to 32% efficiency and a 50 year warranty is a game changer. It will be interesting to see a third party test facility put this product through accelerated life tests to see how things like delamination, of the aluminum back conductor, LID and overall yearly panel output degradation changes the output and by how much.
50 year is an eternity and nobody will want those old working panels..
This is also what one could call taking responsibility for one’s daily energy use and after one is gone a legacy of energy responsibility for anyone purchasing the home next. It’s an heirloom, it’s a legacy to the next generation(s).
Commercial and Industrial entities with a roof full of these panels and covered parking using these panels will be able to manufacture goods using non commodity, non fueled energy, with the appropriate energy storage system can eliminate an electric bill and onerous “demand charges” from the overhead for decades. Perhaps the savings in electricity every month for decades could also help fill the kitty for loyal employees to have a pension at the end of their careers?
if your off grid it makes a lot of sense
People won’t want to do nothing and continue to receive free electricity from panels that are already installed?