Cadmium Telluride Solar Panels

An issue with using thin film panels with a cdte is that they contain a large amount of cadmium which is a toxic element.

Cadmium telluride solar panels. Cadmium telluride cdte is the most common type of thin film solar cell in production. This type of substrate is the most used with manufacturing thin film solar panels and holds 50 percent of market share. Those who live near the 230 megawatt antelope valley solar ranch one want to know whether the 3 7 million cadmium telluride cdte thin film solar panels first solar will install in their desert. On a lifecycle basis cdte pv has the smallest carbon footprint lowest water use and shortest energy payback time of any current photo voltai.

Cadmium telluride cdte photovoltaics describes a photovoltaic pv technology that is based on the use of cadmium telluride a thin semiconductor layer designed to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity. Cadmium telluride cdte photovoltaics or also called cadmium telluride solar cell is a kind of photovoltaic pv technology that can produce electricity from sunlight using a thin film of compound cadmium telluride to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity. The united states is the leader in cadmium telluride cdte photovoltaic pv manufacturing and nrel has been at the forefront of research and development in this area. Cadmium telluride pv is the only thin film technology with lower costs than conventional solar cells made of crystalline silicon in multi kilowatt systems.

One main energy producing layer made from the compound cadmium telluride and surrounding layers for electricity conduction and collection. Cadmium telluride solar cells use low cost manufacturing technology to produce low cost cells. First solar a us based manufacturer makes attractive pv modules that can be used in home applications. Pv solar cells based on cdte represent the largest segment of commercial thin film module production worldwide.

Production the most common cdte solar cells consist of a simple p n heterojunction structure containing a p doped cdte layer matched with an n doped cadmium sulfide cds layer which acts as a window layer. Normally thin film cells have quite a bit lower efficiency than c si cells but the latest products from first solar have a 14 efficiency which is pretty close to polycrystalline cells. As the second most common photovoltaic technology on the market behind traditional crystalline silicon cadmium telluride cdte panels are already a viable thin film solar panel solution.