IBM links with Japan's TOK to develop solar technology

By Matt Daily

NEW YORK (Reuters) - IBM (IBM.N) has joined forces with semiconductor process company Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) (4186.T) to develop more efficient solar power technologies to cut the cost of the clean energy source, the companies said on Monday.

The move is the latest by large technology companies to enter the burgeoning field of photovoltaic solar products, which turn sunlight into electricity without releasing the pollutants that are emitted from coal, oil and nuclear power generation.

International Business Machines Corp will contribute its expertise in manufacturing cells, while TOK will bring its technology used in the semiconductor industry and for coating LCD panels.

The partnership is seeking to create techniques that double the efficiency of thin film solar modules, making them capable of converting more of the sun's rays into electricity.

IBM Research's Supratik Guha, who leads its solar photovoltaic activities, said the companies do not plan to enter the solar module production business, but hope to license their technology to producers in the next two to three years.

"We've already been in discussions with photovoltaic manufacturers," Guha told Reuters in an interview.

"There are problems to be resolved," he said, "but this is the time we're starting to talk to them."

The partnership will focus on developing new methods for printing copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) cells that can turn more than 15 percent of sunlight into power -- a significant improvement on the 6 percent to 12 percent efficiency that current solar CIGS makers have achieved in their fabrication plants.