gallium

The European Commission has published its second annual assessment of the competitiveness of the EU’s renewable energy technology industries, and it had a warning for policymakers about the trade balance trend being experienced by heat pump makers.

An Australian-Russian research group has developed a silicon heterojunction solar cell based on p-type gallium-doped wafers with an efficiency of 22.6% and an improved stability. The scientists are convinced that these wafers may become a mainstream solution for the SHJ segment within the next decade.

The sheer volume of new power lines which will be required to accommodate the rising tide of solar installations ensures copper has been included by the International Energy Agency on its list of minerals which must keep flowing if the energy transition is to stay on course. And it’s not production that’s the potential bottleneck.

From the acquisition of IP to commercialization, the PV industry has witnessed a rapid rise of gallium-doped silicon. Researchers are testing the resulting cells’ stability while industry has begun the manufacturing phase. All this leads to a key question: Will gallium doped silicon solar modules will be the next big thing?

A team tasked by the European Commission with estimating the raw material requirements of the European energy transition found if global PV roll-out is high, and the component requirements of certain solar technologies don’t improve by a greater margin, some elements could end up in short supply.