The ongoing drive by South Africa to transform itself into a low carbon economy through implementation of an ambitious renewable energy new build program promises to create additional opportunities for manufacturers of solar PV solar cells that could drive growth in the utilization of conductive inks.
 
South Africa is in a race to generate an additional 29,000MW of electricity by 2030, with an estimated 20,000MW of the new capacity coming from renewable energy and liquefied natural gas according to the country’s Department of Energy.
 
Under the ongoing Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP), which has so far attracted nearly $15 billion in investments, South Africa is seeking to generate 4,900MW of solar PV from independent power producers (IPPs), and an additional 4,725MW by the Department of Energy. This initiative is expected to be a key driver in growth in the manufacture of solar cells.
 
And in what could trigger fast growth South Africa’s PV solar panel market, the government has inserted a clause in the REIPPP, which require all IPPs to set aside 15% of the total manufacturing value chain for local content.
 
The National Treasury says under the minimum local content threshold for solar PV modules, “the local process will include tabbing and stringing of cells, encapsulation and lamination, final assembly and testing in compliance with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Standards.”
 
Conductive inks, a special type of ink that allows electric current to flow through, are critical in the manufacture of films for solar cells, a growing business segment in South Africa.
 
Moreover, the increasing new technology that has made the manufacture of solar cells less costly is also impacting the uptake of PV technology, which could have a correlation with the conductive inks in South Africa.
 
According to Soventix, a Germany-based independent power producer and developer of power purchase agreements business models which has a subsidiary in South Africa, film solar cells used to collect solar energy “are produced by depositing one or several thin layers of photovoltaic material on top of each other over a substrate, like glass.”
 
“Even though thin film is not as efficient as polycrystalline cells, the production process is less costly,” and also has the advantage of “simple and cost efficient mass production. This means that solar panels are cheaper, are flexible and thus more versatile and more resistant to heat and shade,” despite having the low side of requiring more installation space because they are ‘less efficient.’ Installation costs are also higher as you require more equipment such as support structures and cables and tend to have a shorter life span.”
 
Several leading global companies, through either their affiliates in South Africa or reseller agreements with local companies, are active in the manufacture or distribution of the different types of this specialty ink. These companies include Sun Chemical Corporation, Conductive Compounds Inc, Henkel AG, Dupont, and Nano Dimension Ltd.
 
Through their products, the companies are likely to get a share of the multi-billion dollar REIPPP’s solar PV expansion program as demand for ingredients and equipment is likely to increase with the progress of the new energy build plan.
 
In early 2018, Nano Dimension Ltd. struck a reseller deal with EDA Technologies, which will pave way for the introduction in the South African market of the DragonFly 2020 Pro solution. Through the deal, EDA Technologies was to introduce the DragonFly 2020 Pro in South Africa in addition to providing Nano Dimension’s customers with local customer service, according to statements from both companies.
 
“This is the latest addition to a strong reseller network that includes more than a dozen partners worldwide,” said Nano Dimension.
 
The company says it has “developed a uniquely formulated nano-conductive ink for use in our systems and will combine its experience and knowledge of additive manufacturing with EDA Technologies’ excellent customer support capabilities and infrastructure, to expand its solutions’ availability through sales and our recently opened on demand service for 3D printing of smart products with the DragonFly 2020 Pro 3D Printer.”
 
Other global conductive ink market players such as Dupont have an opportunity in South Africa to supply critical materials for the making of solar panels needed for the generation of the more than 9,500MW from PV technology over the next 11 years. Dupont, for example, supplies specialty material for the PV industry which the company says are “designed to improve power output, reliable lifetime and return on investments for solar energy systems.”
 
DuPont’s foothold in South Africa could mean the market benefiting from the recently announced newest conductive ink, PE410, which the company says enables “rapid digital prototyping and high volume production in applications with demanding requirements for conductivity, thickness, smoothness and line resolution.”
 
“PE410 ink-jet silver ink displays the stable jetting performance needed for high volume non-contact, digitally printed metallizations in applications such as touch panels, solar cells, OLED lighting and printed antennae,” added Dupont.
 
South Africa’s inks market is dominated by printing ink companies like Flint Group, Hi-Tech Inks, Hostmann-Steinberg, New Africa Inks, NUtec Digital Ink and Constantia Printing Inks, with a combined market share of 60% according to some analysts.
 
Some of these companies and industry associated players also have an opportunity to supply conductive inks ingredients such as phenolic and epoxy resins and catalysts, such as various acids that are required for the resin admixture.
 
Other business opportunities for the manufacture of conductive inks and solar PV panels include conductive material such as coated mica, glass spheres, silver, copper, silver-coated copper and silver-coated aluminum.
 
Experts also say the conductive inks manufacture is part of a wider value chain that include supply of several organic solvents required for the dissolution of the resins and improvement of the ink properties to support efficient electric current flow in the case of solar PV technology.