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14% efficiency thin film foil cells developed

By Kit Temple
Published 9th November 2005

A new efficiency record for thin film foil cells (CIGS) was made by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ). Their technology has been certified with an efficiency level of 14.1%. The institute has also published research showing that their cell efficiency could reach 15% with anti-reflective coating, although they are not pushing research into this area, and are instead focusing their energies on the commercialisation of the technology.

Prototype 14% efficiency CIGS cell

Dr. Ayodhya Tiwari, who has led the research, told ENF that the technology already has one commercial manufacturer planning to set up production. This company is based in Switzerland and could be expected to start commercial shipments in 1H 2007.

Dr. Ayodhya Tiwari
Head of PV, ETHZ

Dr. Tiwari told ENF that around 10 European solar product companies had expressed a commercial interest in using this technology. The interested companies so far are looking to make consumer electronics (eg. charging devices), disaster management products (eg. solar-powered tents, fridges and water purifiers), and light-weight building materials (eg. for aluminium roofs)

Apart from the high efficiency level, Dr. Tiwari felt the three key selling points were the material's ability to be rolled quite tightly (1cm curve radius), its light weight (2.5 watts per gram) and it's long operating lifetime under sunlight compared to the current generation of amorphous and organic cells.