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Thin Film Solar Catching Up To Crystalline Panels On Efficiency?
A senior analyst with Lux Research, Ted Sullivan, points out that there are a variety of thin-film solar cells in production today: MiaSolé uses copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cells in their product; FirstSolar uses cadmium telluride (CdTe) cells, which are dominant sellers in the U.S. thin-film solar market today; while Konica and Sharp use silicon cells.
Of all thin-film technologies, CIGS modules demonstrate the greatest energy conversion efficiency, and power output per square meter. CIGS cells require less energy for production than crystalline cells. Thin film in general requires less expensive semiconductor material, and fewer process steps than it takes to make crystalline modules, according to NREL research.
Manufacturing costs keep the price of thin-film modules comparatively low, today. Solar analyst Sullivan explained, however, that thin-film solar manufacturers face a different challenge:
“There’s kind of a consistency issue for all [thin-film] players. Ideally, you want modules to be produced identically, so there is no variation between each module [especially once they're installed out in the field].
CIGS thin-film solar production is the most highly variable as it involves four metal alloys and processes where impurities and other things can have a negative impact on the resulting product.”
MiaSolé’s 15.7 percent rating, he noted, is important because it illustrates that CIGS thin-film solar technology is comparable to the current, low-end potential energy of silicon polycrystalline panels.
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NanoMarkets recently published a new report titled, “Thin-Film Photovoltaics Materials Markets, 2011 and Beyond.” The report studies and forecasts NanoMarkets’ prognosis on materials sales for thin-film silicon, cadmium telluride and CIGS PV. Additionally, it examines the opportunities for materials in the TFPV space as well as giving an eight-year projection for core absorber materials, electrode, substrates and encapsulant markets.
