Cdte Solar Panel Efficiency

With efficiencies exceeding 20 measured in the laboratory there may be a continuing place for high efficiency cigs panels in the general solar panel market.

Cdte solar panel efficiency. Based on first solar s proven cdte technology series 6 retains all of the performance and reliability advantages featuring premium components and globally consistent high quality manufacture. However cdte panels have a higher percentage of cadmium and cigs cells are a relatively responsible thin film option for the environment. 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. In february 2016 first solar announced that they had reached a record 22 1 conversion efficiency in their cdte cells.

Cdte thin film solar cells can be manufactured quickly and inexpensively providing a lower cost alternative to conventional silicon based technologies. Cigs cells also use the toxic chemical cadmium. Another nine are from first solar the arizona company that is the market leader for the production and sale of cdte thin film solar panels. Pv solar cells based on cdte represent the largest segment of commercial thin film module production worldwide.

Cdte is a direct bandgap material with an energy gap of 1 5 ev and an absorption co efficient around 104 cm 1 in the visible region which means that a layer thickness of a few micrometers is sufficient to absorb 90 of the incident photons. Additionally cdte solar cells require less energy to produce than silicon based solar cells. Recent improvements have matched the efficiency of multicrystalline silicon while maintaining cost leadership. First solar hits record 22 1 conversion efficiency for cdte solar cell 4 about a year ago first solar crushed the conversion efficiency mark for cadmium telluride with a world record 21 5.

The new paper reports a cell efficiency of 20 8 representing a crossing point for the new group v technology relative to historic copper technology. Learn about our component and structure partners. In 2014 the record module efficiency was also raised by first solar from 16 1 up to 17 0. The record efficiency for a laboratory cdte solar cell is 22 1 by first solar while first solar recently reported its average commercial module efficiency to be 16 1 at the end of 2015.

In august 2014 first solar announced a device with 21 1 conversion efficiency. Drawbacks of cadmium telluride photovoltaics.