Tag Archives: Cadmium Telluride

First Solar Won the Race; The Environment Lost – First Solar Panel recycling now the system owner’s responsibility. It cost the DOE at the very least $0.20/watt to encapsulate the modules in concrete for Abound Solar

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Ritesh Pothan

In 2011, I wrote about the CdTe Horse Race in which the three US companies making cadmium telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) modules, First Solar (FSLR), Abound Solar and General Electric (GE Solar, stock ticker GE) jostled for position.  Abound and GE were challenging … Continue reading →

Posted in PV, Recycling, Renewables, Solar, Thin Film | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Doping boosts efficiency of CdTe cell: Empa study

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Ritesh Pothan

Scientists at the Empa Institute in Switzerland claim to have achieved 11.5% conversion efficiency for a CdTe solar cell by doping it with copper. The researchers improved on previous results of around 8% by using high-vacuum copper evaporation on substrate … Continue reading →

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First Solar to manufacture new crystalline silicon line from end of 2014

Posted on August 10, 2013 by Ritesh Pothan

Natgrp: Writing on the wall for Thin Film! “CdTe isn’t suitable for residential or small commercial – that’s half the global market.” Denis de Ceuster, Tetrasun has achieved a third party confirmed efficiency of 21.4% with its n-type silicon cells First … Continue reading →

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First Solar buys GE’s CdTe thin-film IP and forms business partnership

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Ritesh Pothan

GE announced the location of its first thin-film plant in October 2011 which would have a nameplate capacity of 400MW and start commercial shipments in 2013. The facility was at the core of a US$600 million investment in entering the … Continue reading →

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Thin film CdTe PV breakthrough may cut solar costs by one third to lower than 40 $ cents

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Ritesh Pothan

A new Silicon Valley developer of thin film solar PV modules, backed by an Australian venture capitalist, has claimed an engineering breakthrough that could cut the manufacturing costs of PV modules by one third. RSI has broken cover after five … Continue reading →

Posted in Cells & Modules, PV, Renewables, Solar, Thin Film | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Current Solar Module Efficiency Nowhere Near Its Potential, Especially Thin-Film Solar & CPV (Chart)

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Ritesh Pothan

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Director Dan Arvizu recently gave a keynote speech during the 2013 International Renewable Energy Conference (part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week), which I was lucky enough to attend*. His speech covered a large variety of cleantech topics, and most of … Continue reading →

Posted in Cells & Modules, CPV, Crystalline, PV, Solar, Thin Film | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

NREL verifies First Solar’s 16.1% total area module efficiency record leap

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Ritesh Pothan

  Easily surpassing its previous record of 14.4% efficiency, First Solar a pushed the bar to 16.1%. Importantly, the CdTe thin-film leader also set a record for open circuit voltage (VOC), reaching an NREL verified 903.2 millivolts (mV). First Solar … Continue reading →

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First Solar to manufacture copper-based crystalline silicon solar cells

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Ritesh Pothan

TetraSun’s cell concept is based on what the company has termed “a novel surface passivation technology”. It enables the use of 40um wide copper electrodes instead of screen-printed silver metallization. Without demanding special equipment for the manufacturing process, cell Voc … Continue reading →

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First Solar may recycle 100,000 Abound Solar CdTe panels at a cost of US$2.2m to avoid environmental fallout

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Ritesh Pothan

First Solar, the world’s leading CdTe thin film manufacturer, has been recycling its products since 2005. Abram said that process can now recover 95% of the semi-conductor material and 90% of the glass. First Solar has said that it has … Continue reading →

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R&D spending analysis of top 10 PV module manufacturers

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Ritesh Pothan

Using the latest market leader rankings from Solarbuzz for 2012, we plotted the annual spending on R&D of the top 10 ranked companies (see figure 1), since 2007. Looking at chart 2 it is immediately apparent that there is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Crystalline, PV, Renewables, Rooftop, Rural Lighting, Solar, Thin Film | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment