Role of Polycrystalline Thin-Film PV Technologies in Competitive PV Module Markets: Preprint

This paper discusses the developments in thin-film PV technologies and provides an outlook on future commercial module efficiencies achievable based on today's knowledge about champion cell performance

Thin Film CIGS and CdTe Photovoltaic Technologies: Commercialization, Critical Issues, and Applications; Preprint

We report here on the major commercialization aspects of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) technologies based on CIGS and CdTe (a-Si and thin-Si are also reported for completeness on the status of thin-film PV). Worldwide silicon (Si) based PV technologies continues to dominate at more than 94% of the market share, with the share of thin-film PV at less than 6%. However, the market share for thin-film PV in the United States continues to grow rapidly over the past several years and in CY 2006, they had a substantial contribution of about 44%, compared to less than 10% in CY 2003. In CY 2007, thin-film PV market share is expected to surpass that of Si technology in the United States. Worldwide estimated projections for CY 2010 are that thin-film PV production capacity will be more than 3700 MW. A 40-MW thin-film CdTe solar field is currently being installed in Saxony, Germany, and will be completed in early CY 2009. The total project cost is Euro 130 million, which equates to an installed PV system price of Euro 3.25/-watt averaged over the entire solar project. This is the lowest price for any installed PV system in the world today. Critical research, development, and technology issues for thin-film CIGS and CdTe are also elucidated in this paper

Polycrystalline Thin Film Photovoltaics: From the Laboratory to Solar Fields; Preprint

We review the status of commercial polycrystalline thin-film solar cells and photovoltaic (PV) modules, including current and projected commercialization activities

Solar America Initiative (SAI) PV Technology Incubator Program: Preprint

The SAI PV Technology Incubator Program is designed to accelerate technologies/prodesses that have successfully demonstrated a proof-of-concept/process in a laboratory

Performance Test of Amorphous Silicon Modules in Different Climates - Year Four: Progress in Understanding Exposure History Stabilization Effects; Preprint

The four-year experiment involved three identical sets of thin-film a-Si modules from various manufacturers deployed outdoors simultaneously in three sites with distinct climates. Each PV module set spent a one-year period at each site before a final period at the original site where it was first deployed

Status of Amorphous and Crystalline Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Activities

This paper reviews the recent activities and accomplishments of the national Amorphous Silicon Team and a (crystalline) thin-film-Si subteam that was implemented in 2002 to research solar cell devices based on thin crystalline Si based layers. This paper reports the evolution of team organization, the technical highlights from the recent team meetings, and an outlook on commercialization potential

Commercial Status of the PV Industry in 2004 -- Identifying Important and Unimportant Factors: Preprint

This paper reviews the current status of the commercial PV Industry. It assesses the current status of commercially available modules, most of which use silicon wafers or ribbons. My analysis will show that the choice of Si wafers or substrates, once deemed to be the most important aspect, ended up making only negligible differences for commercial products, as long as cells are prepared by diffusion and screen printing. I will also address the prospects and requirements for both next generation thin-film modules and super-high (>20%) efficient commercial crystalline Si cells. It is shown that traditional recombination loss analyses provide a poor tool for understanding limitations of cell and module performance, because those analytical schemes ignore dominating interactions between different loss mechanisms (e.g., of surface and bulk recombination)

Material Requirements for Buffer Layers Used to Obtain Solar Cells with High Open Circuit Voltages

This paper discusses material requirements for junction layers needed to obtain solar cells with highest possible open-circuit voltages (VOC). In a typical a-Si:H-based ''p/i/n'' solar cell, this includes the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) contact layer, the p-layer, a ''buffer layer'' inserted at the p/i interface, and the surface portion of the intrinsic layer. In HIT-cells, the i-layer between (n-type) c-Si and (p-type) a-Si:H may be regarded as the buffer. Our suggestion to obtain high values of VOC relies on using materials with high lifetimes and low carrier mobilities that are capable of reducing surface or junction recombination by reducing the flow of carriers into this loss-pathway. We provide a general calculation that supports these approaches and can explain why these schemes are beneficial for all solar cells