Solar ♦ industry news
Both organizations have received many awards, including the 2008 R&D 100 Editor’s Choice “Most Revolutionary Technology” Award. They were honored for their work in liquid deposition Hybrid CIGS, for their significant impact on the solar market as well as in the field of nanotechnology.
“HelioVolt is deeply committed to our collaborative efforts with NREL. We continue to invest in the relationship because of the tremendous value our teams have jointly contributed to our technology evolution roadmap. CIGS modules are entering a very exciting commercial phase in the solar industry.
We believe that high conversion efficiencies - above 15% on a full size monolithically interconnected module rather than cell level - require developing innovative methods for producing nanoscale building blocks and synthesizing them into device- quality CIGS thin-film material. Our work with NREL provides us a sound foundation for realizing these goals,” said BJ Stanbery, HelioVolt’s founder and Chairman.
Many steps in conventional thin-film production require vacuum deposition, a process by which the thin-film material is coated onto the substrate in a very low-pressure vacuum chamber. Future non- vacuum deposition processes can be less capital intensive, but depositing CIGS films on large areas with the precision necessary to achieve both high performance and low manufacturing costs is difficult without the advantages of the FASST (TM) process.
HelioVolt and NREL’s efforts in developing non- vacuum atmospheric pressure deposition processes will offer a combination of lower cost, process simplicity, and reduced manufacturing time, while still delivering high-quality CIGS.
HelioVolt Corporation, based in Austin, Texas, is a manufacturer of the next generation of thin-film photovoltaic products. The company’s low-cost, rapid production methods for CIGS synthesis are protected by a broad patent portfolio. To date, HelioVolt has raised over $140M in venture financing to fund the company’s move to volume production and international expansion.
XsunX CIGS Module Hits 15.1 % Conversion Efficiency
The firm’s cross-industry CIGSolar product is expected to advance at a tremendous rate towards the commercial market.
XsunX, a developer of hybrid, thin-film photovoltaic (TFPV) solar cell technologies and manufacturing processes, has further enhanced the conversion efficiency levels of its cell devices to 15.1% based upon the Company’s CIGSolar technology.
With other market-ready thin-film technologies functioning within the range of 8-11 % percent for solar modules, the CIGSolar technology illustrates conversion efficiency that may soon lead to gains over current technology.
“The rate at which we’re experiencing percentage point gains is truly incredible considering only weeks ago we announced surpassing 14 % conversion efficiency,” said Tom Djokovich, CEO, XsunX. “Our confidence that small area co- evaporation processes is the key to delivering the best performance CIGS thin-film cells continues to be strengthened.”
CIGS thin-film researchers have concluded the theoretical limit for CIGS solar technology tops at 29 % conversion efficiency, although the highest percentage ever achieved was 20 %in a laboratory setting.
“It’s important to remember that we are developing our technology on the same size substrates we intend to use in our commercial systems, about the same size as a silicon solar cell, so the efficiency levels we achieve in the laboratory we believe will be transferable to what we can offer the market,” adds Djokovich.
“Unlike current solar developers, we don’t anticipate having to struggle with the challenges of scaling product while maintaining laboratory efficiencies.”
XsunX has achieved 15.1 % in a relatively short period of time and with less cost compared to other CIGS efforts that spanned many years and incurred significantly higher capital demands for less than similar results. This rapid success, coupled with the technology’s perceived value as
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net November/December 2010
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