Two Thin-Film Solar Efficiency Records Broken Last Week

Renewable Energy World
First Solar, one of the world’s largest thin-film PV companies, announced that it set a world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) PV cells, converting 20.4 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity. The cell was built at the company's Perrysburg, Ohio, factory. (...)
Stion announced that it produced a 23.2 efficient copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS)-based thin-film cell. This technology puts it within striking range of the most-efficient silicon-based PV cells. The company said it’s already scaled this technology at or above 20.0 percent efficiency on a prototype module (20 cm x 20 cm) and anticipates that it will soon be able to scale it to a larger module. (...)
[T]hin-film embraces a variety of technologies, they’re at different levels of efficiency but all are competing to catch up with silicon PV, which is led as of February 2014 by Panasonic, which has produced silicon cells that convert 24.7 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity.

Paint-on solar cells developed

Science daily
A team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame has made a major advance toward this vision by creating an inexpensive "solar paint" that uses semiconducting nanoparticles to produce energy.(...) [D]escribed in the journal ACS Nano, centered on nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide, which were coated with either cadmium sulfide or cadmium selenide. The particles were then suspended in a water-alcohol mixture to create a paste. When the paste was brushed onto a transparent conducting material and exposed to light, it created electricity. "The best light-to-energy conversion efficiency we've reached so far is 1 percent, which is well behind the usual 10 to 15 percent efficiency of commercial silicon solar cells,".

Full paper here.

First Solar Sets Efficiency Record: 17.3 Percent

Greentech Media
First Solar today announced that it has produced a cadmium telluride solar cell with a 17.3% efficiency, shattering a ten year old record set by NREL [16.7%]. (...) The solar cell won't go into production soon, but might help ease some concerns that cadmium telluride is approaching an efficiency ceiling. (...)
The average efficiency, however, is comparatively on the low side. First Solar boosted its average efficiency to 11.7%: that's up from the 11.1% efficiency for the same period the year before but below the efficiencies (14 to 20%) seen in crystalline silicon solar panels and 12% plus efficiencies seen in copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar modules. Module efficiency is typically a few points lower than cell efficiency.

First Solar to Acquire 5N Plus to Access Tellurium?

[adapted from] Greentech Media
First Solar, the globe's leading producer of thin-film photovoltaic panels, will look to buy 5N Plusto secure its supply of the element tellurium. (...) Although First Solar is the largest cadmium telluride user, there are a few startups looking to replicate its success. The leading aspirants in the CdTe materials system for photovoltaics are Abound Solar [who has a supply agreement with 5N Plus],  PrimeStar Solar, Calyxo/Q-Cells and Solexant.
Tellurium is a byproduct of copper mining and there is an ongoing debate over whether the global tellurium supply can support the growing needs of the solar industry. Prices for tellurium surged from under $100 per kilogram in 2007 to over $200 per kilogram in 2008. It is estimated that 30% of the global tellurium supply goes to First Solar -- and that proportion is increasing [Tellurium is also used to improve the machinability of steel and copper, as well as in CD-RW disks and other semiconductor applications.]. Rising tellurium prices might spur companies to explore a more active exploration and mining operation, rather than depending on tellurium as byproduct. First Solar has been looking for suppliers who would focus on mining tellurium. Capital Mining in Australia announced in May 2008 that First Solar was sending a geologist to check out a newly discovered tellurium deposit.

Estimates vary, but annual global tellurium production is about 160 tons to 260 tons, with demand potentially reaching 800 tons by 2013. At 8 grams of tellurium per 2 foot by 4 foot panel, that's roughly 100 metric tons of tellurium for each gigawatt of PV production. (...) In any case, silicon remains a much more earth-abundant element than tellurium, although tellurium is in strong supply extraterrestrially and in undersea mountain ridges.

Governo chinês aprova construção da maior central solar do mundo
O Governo chinês e a empresa First Solar assinaram ontem um memorando de entendimento para a construção da maior central solar do mundo na Mongólia Interior. A central, que deverá ficar concluída em 2019, terá uma capacidade produtiva de dois gigawatts. (...) A primeira fase de construção da central, que será construída na cidade de Ordos, no deserto, será um projecto de demonstração de 30 megawatts que arrancará a 1 de Junho de 2010. As fases 2, 3 e 4 serão de 100, 870 e 1000 megawatts, respectivamente. As fases 2 e 3 estarão concluídas em 2014 e a última em 2019, revela a norte-americana First Solar

Swiss researchers tout record-efficient CdTe cells for roll-to-roll
esearchers from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA) near Zurich have produced cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film solar cells with a record 12.4% efficiency, made with a low-temperature process compatible for roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing. The flexible CdTe thin-film cells (measuring Voc= 823 mV, Jsc= 19.6 mA.cm-2, FF= 76.5% under standard AM1.5 illumination) were made on a lightweight polymer (polyimide) film using a low-temperature (<450°C) vacuum evaporation process to grow the layers, and subsequent annealing in air. The indium tin oxide (ITO) layers used in previous 11.4% efficient cells was replaced with a bi-layer of ZnO/ZnO:Al as a transparent electrical contact; this improved process yield and reproducibility, and is cheaper than expensive ITO, they noted.

First Solar Passes $1 Per Watt Industry Milestone
First Solar today announced it reduced its manufacturing cost for solar modules in the fourth quarter to 98 cents per watt, breaking the $1 per watt price barrier. (...) First Solar began full commercial operation of its initial manufacturing line in late 2004. From 2004 through today, manufacturing capacity has grown 2,500 percent to more than 500 megawatts in 2008. First Solar’s annual production capacity will double in 2009 to more than 1 gigawatt, the equivalent of an average-sized nuclear power plant. These escalating volumes have been accompanied by a rapid reduction in manufacturing costs. From 2004 through today, First Solar’s manufacturing costs have declined two-thirds from over $3 per watt to less than $1 per watt.

First Solar Panels Piling Up?
[S]ix key First Solar customers aren't able to install the solar panels quick enough. Those customers, including EDF Energies Nouvelles, Conergy, Ecostream, Phoenix Solar and Colexon, might have an even tough time doing so in 2009, when First Solar is due to ship even more panels to them than it did in 2008. (...)
Moreover, we don't expect these modules to move out soon, given weakening economics, lower natural gas prices, higher interest rates, and tougher underwriting requirements," wrote Jonathan Hoopes, managing director of energy technology research at ThinkEquity. (...)
Hoopes estimated First Solar shipped about 208 megawatts worth of panels to the six customers between the second half of 2007 and 2008. He combed through company announcements and presentations and figured that roughly 105 megawatts, leaving 103 megawatts in their inventories.

Solterra Concludes Worldwide Exclusive License with Rice University
Solterra Renewable Technologies (...) has concluded the worldwide exclusive license with the Rice University for intellectual property which includes the "Synthesis of Uniform Nanoparticle Shapes with High Selectivity." (...) [a] new chemical method for making low cost, four-legged cadmium selenide quantum dots. (...) In addition to photovoltaic applications low cost high quality quantum dots are widely thought to be the enabling factor for a variety of other emerging technologies including high performance QD based lasers, color displays, solid state lighting, bioimaging, quantum computers and solar/hydrogen generation. Solterra is scheduled to begin scale up of this revolutionary technology in early November 2008 with commercial production anticipated to begin in the second half of 2009.