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Meet us @ PV Taiwan 2011 Show
Professional mass production is at home in Taiwan. MOT wants to meet you and discuss cost effective mass production solutions for CIGS.
October 5-7, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Hall 1, booth 801 Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC)
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Meet us at the biggest PV solar exhibition
26th PVSEC, 5 - 9th September, Hamburg, Germany
Booth A4/B25cIf you'd like to find our more about the new MOT Solar and its solutions, visit us at the Hamburg event.
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Thin-film technologies simplify production
The next-generation in solar power, thin-film technologies use less than 1% of the raw materials of wafer-based cells. They can also be built using simpler processes that are more easily automated. Creating finished modules is simpler too, as you do not have to string individual cells together into a circuit before laminating – the circuit design is integrated into the cell manufacture process.
There are a number of different thin-film technologies available today: amorphous silicon (a-Si), polycrystalline silicon, cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium (gallium)
di-selenide (CIS / CIGS). Though typically less efficient than wafer-based cells, all these technologies are much cheaper to produce, leading to comparable or better cost per Watt.
CdTe and CIS / CIGS cells also have the advantage of not being silicon based so are free from the supply issues and volatility of the silicon market. Moreover, CIS / CIGS cells are the most efficient of all thin-film technologies – exceeding 19% efficiency in small laboratory cells.
Layer structure of a thin-film cell
Switching from a technology that relies on high-grade silicon to one that relies on the rare element indium may seem like a swapping one supply problem for another. However, producing 2 GW of CIGS cells would only use about 10% of the world’s annual supply of indium. By comparison, silicon solar cells used up 33% of the world’s electronic-grade silicon production in 2006. Furthermore, the indium can be easily recycled at the end of the cell’s lifetime.
