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Applied Materials | Applied Films |
"Thin film" solar cells -- sprayed onto glass or other flat surfaces. Aplied Films offers production solutions for Wafer-based and Thin film solar cells.
Applied Materials Report |
More than 90 per cent of solar panels being produced today use large amounts of silicon, leading to the development of thin-film solar cells, where a layer of silicon thinner than a human hair is deposited on to glass, plastic or metal.Applied Materials, the world's biggest maker of tools for the semiconductor industry, has transferred its expertise to the solar industry. This month, it announced its new solar strategy, saying it aimed to reduce the cost of generating a watt of electricity from $3 to $1.
"We see the silicon shortage as a catalyst more than a permanent or critical feature," says Mark Pinto, Applied Material's chief technology officer. "It's obviously choking the industry, a lot of people don't have secure supply and they're having to make the wafers thinner and thinner."
The wafers are now so thin they break easily but Applied's equipment promises more sensitive handling and better yields. Its expertise in making equipment for the flat-panel display industry and its acquisition of Applied Films, which specialises in thin-film deposition of materials, means it can also help achieve finer coatings of silicon on glass-based solar panels.
Mr Winegarner says the solar industry's use of polysilicon in Silicon Valley will match that of the chipmakers when supplies get back to normal in 2008: "Twenty years from now, the primary use of that material will be solar and semiconductors will represent a small niche.
ErSol | Thin Film
Germany : 2006 Thin-Film Solar PV |
Nanosolar : http://nanosolar.com/ |
A Solar Panel on Every Building™.
Nanosolar is on track to make solar electricity: cost-efficient for ubiquitous deployment - mass-produced on a global scale - available in many versatile forms. Nanosolar has developed proprietary technology that makes it possible to simply roll-print solar cells that require only 1/100th as thick an absorber as a silicon-wafer cell -- yet deliver similar performance and durability. Our technology dramatically lowers the process cost and complexity involved in the production of thin-film solar cells and makes it possible to scale production very rapidly. The result sets the standard for the technology and products that make it possible to put A Solar Panel on Every Building™.
NREL -- The Thin Film Partnership Program |
supports progress in thin-film technologies, helping NREL remain a pioneer in thin-films. The Thin Film Partnership Program Web site provides a database of the most relevant and up-to-date resources about thin films, serving the thin-film community and more general audiences with information.
PowerFilm Inc. | PowerFilm Solar |
Thin film photovoltaic cells |
use layers of semiconductor materials only a few micrometers thick, attached to an inexpensive backing such as glass, flexible plastic, or stainless steel. Semiconductor materials for use in thin films include amorphous silicon (a-Si), copper indium diselenide (CIS), and cadmium telluride (CdTe). Amorphous silicon has no crystal structure and is gradually degraded by exposure to light through the Staebler-Wronski Effect. Hydrogen passivation can reduce this effect. Because the quantity of semiconductor material required for thin films is far smaller than for traditional PV cells, the cost of thin film manufacturing is far less than for crystalline silicon solar cells.
Thin Film links | costs |
Thin Film Power Plants Tied To Grid |
Thin films are promising because they use little to no silicon — an advantage since the high-grade silicon needed for PV is scarce. Even without today’s shortage, silicon has been the costliest part of a traditional cell. Nanosolar has a thin-film technology that it claims is 10 times as cost-efficient as traditional cells, and a printing-based manufacturing technique that it says will bring the price down to less than a dollar per watt, competitive with natural gas and peak electricity prices
XsunX | Aliso Viejo, California -- report |
XsunX is developing and commercializing innovative new thin film photovoltaic (TFPV) solar cell technologies and manufacturing processes to service expanding global energy demands.
Site: http://www.XsunX.com/ |