Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

• Most Popular Articles

  • Suntech sales reach US$1.7 billion in 2009: capex, capacity and shipments to rise in 2010
  • Q-Cells CEO exits amid investor anxiety
  • Project Focus: U.S. Navy to award $200M in contracts to build 40MW of solar PV power plants
  • Moser Baer achieves 7.3% module efficiency through its proprietary process
  • Yingli Green to add 300MW of capacity; tops $1B in annual revenues, achieves record module shipments

• Popular Technical Papers

  • Photovoltaic Fab Managers’ Forum Review
  • Photovoltaic industry 2009: a journey into uncertainty
  • Overview of automation in the photovoltaic industry
  • Thin-film CIGS starts to come of age
  • CIGS, CdTe thin-film PV equipment sector emerges, standardization remains elusive

• Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

  Name
  Job title
  Company
  Email

The U.S.-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has confirmed a new conversion efficiency record for CIS (copper indium selenide) thin film modules fabricated by Avancis. Published in the journal ‘Progress in Photovoltaics,’ NREL confirmed a 15.1 % conversion efficiency for a 30 x 30 cm², fully encapsulated CIS solar module, based on the aperture area of 668 cm². Avancis produced the results in its R&D lab in Munich, Germany. The thin film start-up has produced 11% efficiency levels at its 20MWp/pa capacity plant in Torgau, Saxony.

“This world record is testimony to the fact that CIS boasts the best performance of all thin-film technologies and, with our patented, two-stage manufacturing method, we have an unrivalled production process at our disposal,” explained Dr. Franz Karg, CTO of Avancis. “Since start of production in October 2008, we have been able to increase the efficiency of standard production modules from an initial 9% to 11%.”

Avancis started CIS production in October, 2008. A year later it had said that it had reached full capacity ramp. The company is a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain.