Special Report: Thin films: ready for their close-up?

Tag : Amorphous Solar Cell

Nanosolar of Palo Alto, California, perhaps the most bullish of thethin-film CIGS companies, claims to have developed a productionsystem that, for a capital cost of $1.65 million, could churn out600 metres of solar panels per minute, for an annual yield of onegigawatt of capacity. This is orders of magnitude cheaper andfaster than conventional thin-film vacuum deposition techniques: Forbes magazine has reported that Showa Shell Sekiyu, part of Shell'sJapanese arm, is looking at spending 100 billion yen ($930 million)on a one-gigawatt-a-year solar-cell facility using more traditionalthin-film manufacturing. In development
Some scientists are sceptical as to whether CIGS will, in practice,live up to its extravagant promise. Mass-producing CIGS films withconsistent microstructure and composition is a challenge that ineffect may trade off the benefits of increased manufacturabilityand increased efficiency.