| With an efficiency of 20.1 percent, scientists at the Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg, Germany (Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research, ZSW) have achieved a new success in striving to increase the electricity yield of solar cells. The Stuttgart researchers produced thin-film solar cells with a top efficiency of 20.3 percent. With this performance, they exceed their own world record – and minimize to only 0.1 percent the advance of the multi-crystalline solarcells still dominating the market. The new record-breaking solar cells from ZSW are made of extremely thin layers of copper, indium, gallium and diselenide (CIGS for short). This saves materials and costs. The new results should significantly improve the cost-effectiveness of CIGS thin-film photovoltaics over the medium term. The area of the world record cell is 0.5 square centimetres. The semiconducting CIGS layer and the contact layers have a total thickness of only four thousandths of a millimetre, making them 50 times thinner than standard silicon cells. "Our researchers have made the cells in a CIGS laboratory coating plant using a modified co-evaporation process, which in principle can be scaled up to commercial production processes," says Dr. Michael Powalla, Member of the Board and Head of the Photovoltaics Division at ZSW. The Fraunhofer ISE in Freiburg, Germany has confirmed the new results. However, it would take a while before the increased efficiency of CIGS solar cells can be commercially utilised, Powalla said. Innovative research and the professionalization of production will further increase the efficiency of thin-film solar modules. Within the next years, the efficiency of the relatively low-priced CIGS thin-film solar modules will rise from about 11 percent to about 15 percent, experts say. Higher efficiencies improve the electrical power output and thus the financial returns delivered by photovoltaic systems. Experts assume that the CIGS thin-film technology is facing a great commercial future. Compared to 2008, in 2012 the market share of thin-film power plants is expected to double, reaching around 30 percent. The ZSW is an international leader in the development of CIGS thinfilm modules. Together with the company Würth Solar, the institute has advanced this technology to enable industrial production. In 2006, Würth Solar launched the world’s first mass production of CIGS solar modules in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany. |
手机版|Archiver|阳光工匠光伏论坛 ( 苏ICP备08005685号 )
GMT+8, 2024-11-23 15:12 , Processed in 1.031250 second(s), 9 queries , File On.
Powered by Discuz! X3.4
Copyright © 2001-2020, Tencent Cloud.
