Solar ♦ industry news
facilities with a third facility that will become operational in 2011. At 900 MW, the third plant will become the world’s largest photovoltaic production facility. This will bring Solar Frontier’s total photovoltaic device manufacturing output to 1 gigawatt (GW) of production; expected to be the largest CIS photovoltaic capacity in the world.
“Solar Frontier’s extensive experience in the research and development of CIS thin film photovoltaic technologies has delivered numerous conversion efficiency breakthroughs that have resulted in world class records,” said Satoru Kuriyagawa, Solar Frontier’s Chief Technology Officer. “We are interested in exploring CZTS for its evolutionary compatibility with our CIS thin film technology. The goals of the project correspond with Solar Frontier’s mission to combine both economical and ecological solar energy solutions.”
“Solar Frontier is one of the world’s leading experts in CIS-based thin film solar panels and we look forward to working with them.” said T.C. Chen, VP of Science and Technology IBM Research. “Adding Solar Frontier’s deep expertise in thin- film-based solar device technology to this project will strengthen the collaborative effort we began in this area with Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co.,Ltd., for developing chemistry and tooling expertise; and more recently adding DelSolar’s solar module and manufacturing expertise. This team will significantly increase our ability to create CZTS photovoltaic technology that achieves sustainable grid parity.”
CZTS-based technology utilizes materials that avoid heavy metals and are readily available at a lower cost. By virtue of these materials, the goal of this project is to create next generation solar technology that lowers the cost of producing electricity, enabling solar energy to become a ubiquitous alternative to carbon-based energy sources.
The research for this joint development program will mainly take place at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.
Solar Frontier is a subsidiary of Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. and is committed to creating the most economical, ecological solar energy solutions in the world, on the world’s largest scale. Solar Frontier’s proprietary CIS technology, is claimed to have the best overall potential to set the world’s most
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net November/December 2010
enduring standard for solar energy. This is based on the firm’s legacy of work in solar technology since the 1970s, the priority focus our laboratories have given to CIS since 1993, and its success in large scale CIS commercialization since 2007.
The critical factors that combine to make CIS the overall economical and ecological leader include high efficiency and low production costs as well as superior reliability, stability, sustainability, non- toxicity, and lower overall energy consumption in the manufacturing process to yield a faster energy payback time.
XsunX’s CIGSolar Device Raises the Bar with 14% Efficiency
The firm’s solar cell module conversion demonstrates the incorporation of gallium near the junction in the cell structure is necessary for producing high efficiencies.
XsunX, a developer of advanced, thin-film photovoltaic (TFPV) solar cell technologies and manufacturing processes, has successfully fabricated cells based upon the Company’s CIGSolar technology that surpass 14 % conversion efficiency.
This achievement supports the Company’s assertion that small-area, co-evaporation production provides the best platform to deliver the highest efficiency CIGS based solar cells necessary to compete with and potentially replace silicon photovoltaic (PV) technologies.
“In only a few short months since adding our new co-evaporation capability and control approach to our CIGS process development, we’ve achieved efficiencies of over 14 percent,” said Chief Technology Officer, XsunX, Robert G. Wendt.
“This efficiency level and the efficiency distribution is a significant achievement. In addition to achieving high efficiency levels, we demonstrated excellent cell voltage in the range of 620 to 660 millivolt (mV) clearly demonstrating the incorporation of gallium near the junction in the cell structure which is necessary for producing high efficiencies. We
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