Low-cost solar power is increasingly becoming the focus of solar-cell manufacturers, new research shows.

While Chinese and Taiwanese solar-cell manufacturers have made considerable progress driving down photovoltaic manufacturing costs, commercializing next-generation cell technologies to achieve cost-effective conversion efficiency differentiation is a critical priority for market participants, says PHOTON Consulting's new global solar-supply-chain cost study, The True Cost of Solar Power: The Pressure's On.

According to the study, the push to reduce costs has turned to small, technology-driven increases in solar-cell conversion efficiencies to decrease supply chain $/W costs.

In the past year, cell manufacturers have increasingly begun to incorporate novel techniques and turnkey equipment in their production lines, including approaches such as selective-emitter fabrication, heterojuntion cells, novel metallization inks, back/point-contact cells, and emitter-wrap-through architectures.

"Many capital equipment upgrades offer average commercial cell efficiency increases of only 0.1-0.5%, and require relatively high upfront investment," says PHOTON Consulting consultant and study co-author, Chris Bolman.

"But there are a few clear winners in the space. Moreover, our three year view is that the adoption growth of next-generation cell fabrication tools will play a key role in driving the industry's manufacturing technology roadmap and reshaping manufacturer's competitive differentiation."