Technology and R&D

Lux Research has said that emerging technologies will bring the costs of photovoltaic metallization down and improve process yields. Overall, copper has been named as the “logical metallization winner”.

After several years of hustling and hyperbole in the photovoltaics industry, the first half of 2012 has been a time of oversupply and underachievement globally. pv magazine takes a look at the biggest developments of the year to date. Overhang, crystalline, storage and fracking are just some of the watchwords.

U.S.-based thin film manufacturer, Stion has achieved a CIGS photovoltaic module efficiency of 13.4 percent, and an aperture efficiency of 14.8 percent. The results have been verified by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

According to Applied Materials’ fourth annual solar energy survey, while many consumers are said to be “optimistic” about the renewable energy, there is a lack of understanding regarding costs and adoption rates.

Three photovoltaic industry executives have been chosen to lead a new U.S. CIGS PV Roadmap. The aim is to create a national plan for the CIGS industry in order to boost its competitiveness.

Japan’s Kaneka Corporation and Belgium-based imec have achieved an efficiency of 22.68 percent on a six inch semi-square heterojunction silicon solar cell using an electroplated copper contact grid. The results have been confirmed by the Fraunhofer ISE CalLab.

Korea-based Shinsung Solar Energy has achieved a new crystalline solar cell efficiency of 20.03 percent. The results have been confirmed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems.

Key technical breakthroughs in the past year have pushed the dye sensitized cell (DSC) photovoltaic market out of the research and development stage, making it a technology with solid growth potential in the near future.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has said US$5 million will be made available for the development of plug-and-play photovoltaic systems in 2012, under the SunShot initiative. Over the next four years, it hopes to invest an additional $20 million.

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has achieved a conversion efficiency of 19.7 percent on its copper-contact selective-emitter solar cell. This, it says, is a new world record.