Thin-film

Silicon-perovskite tandem solar requires optimization of both approaches, and embodies the weaknesses of each. Meanwhile, the use of pure thin-film devices offers a cheaper, simpler, and more sustainable PV solution for the United States.

Developed by the University of Toledo, the cell achived the highest efficiency ever reported for flexible cadmium telluride solar cells to date. The device reached an open-circuit voltage of 861 mV, a short-circuit density of 27.8 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 71.7%.

German equipment supplier 4JET has launched a new thin film system designed for P1, P2 and P3 laser scribing of perovskite, cadmium telluride (CdTe), and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar technologies.

A new generation of flexible, lightweight modules is entering the market. With back contact technology offering its own form of design flexibility and robustness, the new products could crack a hard-to-address market segment.

Bluewater Energy Services has won a grant from the Dutch government to build a flexible floating solar demonstration project in the North Sea. The system uses flexible thin-film PV modules and flexible floaters that move with the waves.

Swansea University will collaborate with Indian multinational Tata Steel to investigate perovskite solar cell materials that could be applied directly onto coated steel to make building-integrated PV components. The partnership will add to an “active buildings” project that the Welsh university has been running for several years.

Thin-film cadmium telluride panels may have a $0.02 to $0.04 per watt carbon cost advantage over traditional polysilicon, said the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in an analysis of embodied carbon, embodied energy, and energy payback.

Operated by UK start-up Power Roll, the pilot factory will reach a capacity of 30 MW by year end. The manufacturer uses low-cost roll-to-roll manufacturing processes and patented microgroove patterns to produce flexible solar panels intended for applications on warehouses and agricultural sheds whose roofs are not strong enough for conventional arrays as well as in vehicle-integrated photovoltaics.

With five public entities having committed RMB1.25 billion into a project to produce copper, indium, gallium, selenide solar modules five years ago, the joint venture has been abandoned at an estimated impairment cost of RMB1.42 billion.

Deployment in the building integrated PV segment is accelerating, and so too are the number of solar products available to architects and developers. And while BIPV had long been the segment in which an array of thin-film technologies could shine, they are now in increasingly stiff competition with crystalline silicon rivals.