The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has given an exclusive patent licence to equipment specialist, Natcore Technology to use its diffused emitter technology ‘Black Silicon’ with Natcore’s liquid phase deposition (LPD) technology. The black silicon process has been claimed by Natcore scientists and NREL researchers to reduce average reflectivity to less than 1.5%, compared to current advanced antireflective coatings that are said to reduce the average reflectivity to approximately 6%. The aim is to commercialize the technology in 2012.
Two years of hard work has culminated in the development of a prototype for a next generation solar PV device. It will be submitted to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in early 2012 for certification. The NGD technology uses a novel approach combining a barrier oxide layer with a patent-pending absorber layer, replacing the traditional semiconductor layer used in crystalline silicon and thin-film PV.
Roth & Rau's has recently improved the cell efficiency on their heterojunction solar cells (HJT) to 21% efficiency on 156mm wafers. Presented at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition in Hamburg at the beginning of September this year, Roth & Rau achieved the first silicon heterojunction cell on 6 inch wafers at an efficiency rating of 20%. This result was later independently confirmed at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE).
Semiconductor equipment supplier, Novellus Systems is developing what it describes as conformal film deposition (CFD) technology, an atomic layer deposition process to grow conformal metal oxide and metal nitride dipole layers in the PV cells. Collaboration is being undertaken with the University of South Florida (USF), to study the precise engineering of solar cell interfaces via a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.
Pushing the boundaries of conventional silicon solar cell technology, while offering a low-cost production approach, took another step forward, according to R&D organisation, imec. In conjunction with its industrial affiliates, researchers have developed a small-area (2x2 cm2) - interdigitated back-contact (IBC) silicon solar cells that has demonstrated a conversion efficiency of 23.3%. Work will now focus on developing a large-area and production viable cell and process steps.
Orders from Canada and Azerbaijan for Vitrododi solar glass washers are now being built at a Rimas factory in Holland for Rimas PV manufacturing lines. Vitrododi Solar was acquired by Rimas in July, 2011.
Third quarter results from Hanwha SolarOne echoed pricing pressure and weak demand, especially from Germany that led to margin pressure, inventory write downs and losses. Hanwha SolarOne reported US$225.4 million in revenue, a decrease of 20.1% from 2Q11 when revenue reached US$277.1 million. The company recorded a non-cash inventory write-down of US$30.6 million and a net loss of US$46.4 million.
Kaneka Corporation has signed a licensing agreement with Q-Cells for two patents related to a heat insulator spacer for solar cell based modules. The patents, EP 1009037 and US6300555 cover European and US patents owned by Kaneka.
After a record revenue financial year, Applied Materials is experiencing a significant reduction in equipment orders and revenue from PV manufacturing customers. Though cancellations were minimal, backlog decreased by 26% to US$2.4 billion, of which 14% is within its EES division, which includes PV equipment. Management expects PV related global CapEx to at fall by at least 50% in 2012 as manufacturers combat massive overcapacity and focus on cell efficiency improvements and technology buys.
Continuous pressure on pricing as demand remains weak has further impacted PV product sales and profits at Sunways. Consolidated sales declined by €35.0 million to €23.3 million, compared to the same quarter a year ago when sales reached €58.3 million. Lower cell manufacturing utilization, inventory write-downs on falling ASPs meant Sunways reported losses € 6.3 million an a negative operating result (EBIT) of €11.8 million in the third quarter.
