Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news
Thin Film
Opinion
Blood, sweat, and tears: Global Solar’s Jeff Britt starts to see fruits of his CIGS labors pay off
There’s only a handful of industry veterans who have invested as much blood, sweat, tears, and time into the development of flexible thin-film solar photovoltaics as Jeff Britt. He joined Global Solar Energy in 1998, when the company’s copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide technology was an R&D project, and any product commercialization years away.
News
Matheson Tri-Gas to distribute CIGS sputtering targets and materials for Pioneer Materials
A global exclusive distribution agreement has been signed between Pioneer Materials and Matheson Tri-Gas that will enable Pioneer Materials to concentrate on production and product development of its range of CIGS (copper indium gallium selenium), CIS (copper indium di-sulphide) and other related thin film compounds, while speciality materials producer and distributor handles sales, distribution and customer services.
Order Focus: Calyxo selects 5N Plus CdTe supply and recycling
Leveraging its refining facility in Germany (5N PV GmbH), which was established to meet the needs of First Solar’s thin-film production facility in the country, 5N Plus has now been selected by First Solar rival, Calyxo to supply high-purity metals and compounds for its CdTe thin film products. Calyxo is a subsidiary of Q-Cells. The agreement also includes long-term PV module and production scrap recycling services. 5N Plus also recently secured a similar deal with another CdTe thin film start-up, Abound Solar.
Project Focus: SolFocus installing 1MW CPV system on Victor Valley College campus
SolFocus is installing a 1MW high-concentrator photovoltaics system at Victor Valley College in the high desert of California. Construction of the HCPV installation, which consists of 122 of the company's SF-1100S 8.4KW arrays spread across six acres, is taking place on the college's main campus in Victorville, CA. When the power plant is completed in May, it will generate about 2.5 million kilowatt-hours annually (roughly 30% of the college's electricity demand) and be the largest facility of its kind in North America, according to SolFocus.
GE outlines R&D efforts with CdTe thin-film technology
Via its majority share holding in PrimeStar Solar, GE has outlined its R&D efforts with CdTe thin-film technology. GE said that hundreds of technologists in Germany, China, India and the United States are working on solar technologies. The company noted that it was utilizing its four Global Research operations to address each of the challenges required to bring a new CdTe thin-film product to market.
Holst Centre adds new sintering platform to roll-to-roll manufacturing toolset for OPV, OLEDs
The Holst Centre research organization has built a new proprietary roll-to-roll (R2R) sintering platform for fast, low-temperature curing of printed conductive structures. The group says this tool is a next step in the creation of a complete equipment set for R2R manufacturing, which will enable the center and its industrial partners to further advance such technologies for the manufacturing of organic PV, flexible OLEDs, and smart packaging.
Filmetrics opens two new film thickness measurement application labs
Filmetrics has opened two film thickness measurement application labs in Tainan, Taiwan and Munich, Germany. Each lab is tied into the Filmetrics support network, which provides immediate internet and voice response to Filmetrics customers.
Technical Papers
Novel spectroscopy and spectrometry techniques for the quantitative analysis of PV
Chemical stoichiometry along with depth profiling and metallic contamination is of considerable interest for photovoltaic thin films. Conversion efficiency can be affected for example if primary components, e.g. Cd and Te, are not present at proper ratios. Moreover, amorphous silicon can vary substantially between sources and deposition technique, and qualitative comparison of trace metallic contaminants may not be sufficient to ensure final thin-film quality. This discussion presents data from atomic emission and mass spectrometry techniques that quantitatively and accurately describe both bulk and trace elemental compositions in photovoltaic materials, various thin-film matrices, and the final thin-film cell and module.
Scaling single-junction a-Si thin-film PV technology to the next level
The recent photovoltaic industry shakeout which started around Q3 2008 has faced the overcapacity, credit crunch, and economic crisis that significantly declined the average selling price by 50-65%, including the price of thin-film photovoltaic modules. The changing business environment has put significant pressure on all PV manufacturing technologies but more candidly on amorphous silicon thin-film single-junction module manufacturers to advance and scale up the device efficiency and aggressively drive cost reduction. This paper outlines the technical approach taken at Moser Baer Photovoltaic Technologies India Limited (PVTIL), including process optimization and device
management strategies, to enhance the efficiency (total area) of the thin-film single-junction amorphous silicon module as manufactured using Applied Materials' SunFab line.
Product Briefings
New Product: InSight M Series in-line metrology system optimizes thin-film processes
Product Briefing Outline: BrightView Systems has unveiled the InSight M Series, which it claims to be the world's first in-line process control and optimization tool developed specifically to address the challenges faced by thin-film solar cell manufacturers. The Wide Area Metrology (WAM) system provides continuous monitoring and whole-panel mapping of critical material and process parameters at full production throughput and for 100% of manufactured panels.
New Product: J.A. Woollam’s AccuMap-SE provides thin film measurement of panel uniformity
Product Briefing Outline: J.A. Woollam has integrated its Flying M-2000 Spectroscopic Ellipsometer into a mapping tool for thin-film uniformity measurements over the entire PV panel. The high accuracy and wide spectral coverage of the M-2000 ensure that every layer in a thin film stack can be measured, while new automation has been designed to ensure fast, precise measurements over the entire panel.
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