Xunlight ships first batch of flexible thin-film PV modules to University of Toledo

Xunlight has delivered a shipment of its flexible triple-junction thin-silicon photovoltaic modules to the University of Toledo. The modules will be part of a 10KW array to be installed at the university’s Scott Park Campus of Energy and Innovation (SPCEI).

Xunlight, a technology spinoff from UT and a recipient of millions of dollars in Ohio Department of Development and federal grants, said this is the first shipment of the company’s flexible solar panels to be manufactured on a new 25MW roll-to-roll production line housed in its 122,000 sq ft facility.

“Our first sale and delivery of solar modules marks a significant milestone for Xunlight, and it is especially noteworthy that The University of Toledo is our first customer,” said Xunlight CEO Xunming Deng. “Our deep roots and strong relationship with both UT and ODOD have been instrumental in the development of our technology and the success of our company to date, and Xunlight is thankful for those important relationships.”

“This is a watershed moment for the University of Toledo as Xunlight, one of our technology spinoffs and a company developed in our Clean and Alternative Energy Incubator, has now reached commercialization,” said UT President Lloyd Jacobs.

Designed, developed, and built by Xunlight, the production line’s 200-foot-long series of connected vacuum deposition chambers uses a plasma-enhanced CVD process to deposit thin-film silicon solar cells on a 3ft wide, one-mile-long thin stainless-steel substrate at a speed of 720-sq ft/hr.

The company said that large-area solar modules produced in its pilot line have demonstrated 9.2% initial aperture-area efficiency; after extended light exposure, the number is expected to stabilize at 7.8% aperture-area module efficiency.

Xunlight said it plans to replicate three more 25MW lines by the end of 2010, to bring the company’s total production capacity to 100MW.