siThin-film solar cells are making a major impact on the generation of electricity with energy from the sun, in large part because they offer several advantages in the manufacturing of large-area solar panels. Two materials, CdTe and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (often referred to as CIGS), are responsible for almost all of the current thin-film industrial production. At the cell level, both materials have achieved efficiencies over 22%, and for full-sized panels, efficiencies now exceed 18%. These values are higher than those for multi-crystalline silicon, the most common commercial photovoltaic material. The research program at Colorado State uses a highly flexible thin-film deposition system to fabricate CdTe solar cells with a variety of novel approaches and has been highly successful with its cell efficiencies. Prof. Sites’ laboratory makes extensive measurements and analyses with both CdTe cells from CSU and CIGS cells from elsewhere to quantitatively determine the factors determining and limiting their performance. The presentation will highlight results that have helped explain why the thin-film technology has been particularly successful.
Post time: Feb-05-2017