The Swiss Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) didn’t just break the old thin film efficiency record by a small amount. Their new CIGS thin film solar cells on flexible polymer foils smashed the old record of 18.7% by hitting a 20.4% efficiency rate. The team achieved the … Continue reading
Tag Archives: CIGS
Solyndra gets deal to put solar panels on Southern California big box stores
Solyndra, makers of cylindrical thin film solar cells, this week signed a deal with Southern California Edison (SCE) to install solar systems on the roofs of 18 big box retail stores and industrial buildings. When complete in 2011, the photovoltaic solar arrrays will provide 16.2 megawatts of electricity for SCE. … Continue reading
IBM developing inexpensive solar cells made from available materials
IBM researchers have been developing new efficient thin film type solar cells that use abundant materials instead of the scarce materials used in current thin film solar cells. The materials that IBM is seeking to replace are cadmium, iridium, gallium, and selenide, which make up CIGS type cells. … Continue reading
Solyndra generating buzz with their cylindrical solar cells
Solyndra has been one of those companies that has been gathering funding and working on their technology while not saying a whole bunch. But several news articles out this week show that there’s lots going on at Solyndra. The big financial news was that they have $600 million … Continue reading
CIGS thin film solar cell hits 19.9% efficiency – a record
Researchers at the US Dept of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) have developed a thin-film CIGS solar cell that competes with the efficiency of silicon photovoltaic solar cells. Their new copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) cell hit 19.9% efficiency, which is a world’s record for this type of solar … Continue reading