Press Release

Samsung to Speed Up Its Solar Cell Business

Samsung Electronics started its PV line in its Giheung plant on September 14. The PV line is 30 MW and has been in operation after 40 days of preparation that started with equipment setting in July.

Samsung Electronics has built 85% of the equipment required for establishing the PV line with purely domestic technologies acquired from the experience and know-how accumulated from the semiconductor and LCD businesses.

This localization of equipment and process technologies means that Samsung Electronics could remain price-competitive even if it began mass-producing PV cells.

With constant and steady research, Samsung Electronics has achieved the highest conversion rate for PV cells so far and has the upper hand in producing cheaper and more efficient PV cells.

The PV line offers us a basic platform on which we can develop PV cells with greater efficiency, said Choi Dong-Wook, Director of Samsung Electronics. Combining the existing PV cell design technology and the equipment and process technologies realized in this line enables Samsung Electronics to become a dominant player in the solar PV cell market by 2015.

Samsung Electronics will review the results of its R&D and the performance of the PV line before it decides to introduce a mass production line. Samsung Electronics is also developing thin-film technologies including a-Si and CIGS and striving to improve thin-film conversion efficiency using the technological know-how gained from its semiconductor and LCD operations.