news digest ♦ Solar Stion`s CIGS solar modules
better than ever The company’s latest solar modules demonstrated no degradation in their first year
In April 2012, Stion installed a 60 kW demonstration array in Hattiesburg, Mississippi comprised of some of the very first CIGS modules produced at the company’s high-volume factory in Mississippi.
After 1 year of field production in the hot and humid Mississippi delta, Stion’s modules showed zero degradation in power output. A random sample of modules was removed from the array and tested; they performed at or above the STC (an irradiance of 1000 W/m², an air mass of 1.5 and a module temperature of 25°C) flash test result that was recorded at time of production.
This may be a surprise to those in the solar industry that expect at least 1 to2 percent loss in power in just the first year with silicon-based modules.
This stable performance confirms that Stion’s modules match the stability seen in CIGS modules that have been stable for nearly 8 years in a test array at the National Renewable Energy Lab.
Stion’s CIGS modules have a dual glass / glass construction providing significantly improved moisture resistance and lifetime durability over the traditional polymer based backsheets used in traditional PV modules.
The firm’s modules are resistant to potential induced degradation, light-induced degradation, and provide a durable solution engineered to survive in harsh environments and out- perform in non-ideal situations.
Stion COO Marty Finkbeiner says, “We at Stion are excited to offer a product line with improved laboratory performance and industry-leading technology that out-performs other technologies from day 1 to day 10,000.”
Veeco to reveal compact MBE tool
The company says its latest molecular beam epitaxy reactor is the industry’s first integrated MBE System for the compound semiconductor R&D market
Veeco Instruments has introduced the GENxplor Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) deposition system.
The GENxplor can create high quality epitaxial layers on substrates up to 3” in diameter and is ideal for cutting edge research on a wide variety of materials including GaAs, nitrides, and oxides.
Latest GENxplor R&D MBE System
“The compound semiconductor R&D community asked for a more affordable, flexible, and easy-to-use MBE system and Veeco has delivered with the GENxplor,” says Jim Northup, Veeco’s Vice President and General Manager. “We have repackaged Veeco’s industry-leading MBE technology into a novel ‘all-in-one’ design that combines the reactor and electronics on a single frame. It will change the way researchers use MBE.”
The GENxplor uses Veeco’s GEN10 growth chamber design and features process flexibility, ideal for materials research on emerging technologies such as UV LEDs, high-efficiency solar cells, and high-temperature superconductors.
Its efficient single frame design combines all vacuum hardware with on-board electronics to make it up to 40 percent smaller than other MBE systems, saving valuable lab space. And as the manual system is integrated on a single frame, installation time is reduced.
Veeco says the open architecture design of the GENxplor also improves ease-of-use and provides convenient access to effusion cells. And it also allows easier serviceability when compared to other MBE systems. When coupled with Veeco’s recently introduced retractable sources, the system is ideally suited to oxide materials research.
P-doping CdTe boosts solar efficiency
Doping cadmium telluride with copper increases solar cell efficiency from 8 to 11.5 percent
Flexible thin film solar cells that can be produced by roll-to- roll manufacturing are a highly promising route to cheap solar electricity.
Now scientists from research institute Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have made significant progress in paving the way for the industrialisation of flexible, light-weight and low-cost cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells on metal foils.
They succeeded in increasing their efficiency from below eight to 11.5 percent by doping the cells with copper, as reported in the current issue of Nature Communications.
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net August/September 2013
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