GLOBAL SOLAR MAKES BETTER THIN FILM

Global Solar: BIPV Market or Bust; The thin-film solar cell maker says its products have a top efficiency of 15.45 percent, and it is branching out of the “dinosaur glass module” market to get a slice of the building materials market.
Ucilia Wang, September 16, 2009 (Greentech Media)

"Global Solar Energy wants you to know two things today: Its copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) cells could covert as much as 15.45 percent of the sunlight that falls on them into electricity; and, it's pursuing sales in the so-called building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) market, where solar cells are embedded into building components instead of encased in glass panels and parked on a rooftop.

"… Global Solar expects to see commercial products with its thin films launched for the BIPV market next year…BIPV is a new market with lots of promises. Plenty of other companies – including CIGS thin-film maker Ascent Solar Technologies in Littleton, Colo. – are looking at turning their solar technologies into roofing products or windows…There aren't many truly integrated solar building materials on the market, and they are expensive. But exploring the BIPV market aggressively could be wise…[because] silicon solar cells [are] getting incredibly cheap and [dominating] the global solar market."

The cadmium-indium-gallium-selenium (CIGS) thin film installation at the Global Solar Energy plant. (click to enlarge)

"Global Solar is one of the earlier developers of CIGS thin films…CIGS materials [are deposited] on a roll of flexible stainless steel to make the solar cells.. [strips of 18 cells, called strings, are sold] to companies that assemble them into panels. This model eliminates the need for the company to invest in factories to make the final products, and strings are lighter and cheaper to ship than [glass-encased] panels…Solon, a Germany-based solar panel maker, owns 19 percent of Global Solar…Solon made the panels used for a 750-kilowatt system installed on the grounds of Global Solar's factory in Tucson…[in] December… the first commercial-scale deployment of its products.

"…[Global Solar] has a 40-megawatt factory in Tucson and a 35-megawatt factory in Germany. …[scratched a planned additional] 100 megawatts of production capacity…when the recession hit…[and] is running its factories at 50 percent capacity…"

Thin-film CIGS material being manufactured at Global Solar. (click to enlarge)

"Last year, Global Solar said its cells could achieve 10 percent efficiency. The company has since made cells from its production line that could achieve 15.45 percent efficiency, a figure verified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory…Global Solar is making strings that could get as high as 11.7 percent…[averaging] between 10 percent and 11 percent…When assembled into a panel, the efficiencies are likely to drop further since not all cells coming off a production line have exactly the same efficiency.

"Raising efficiencies is crucial for the company to offer more attractive products and reduce manufacturing costs…Other CIGS thin-film makers have been reporting higher efficiencies lately. Germany-based Solibro… is producing panels at 12 percent efficiency…[Nanosolar’s] CIGS cells could achieve 16.4 percent. But the medium efficiency of the cells rolling off its production lines falls between 11 percent and 12 percent…NuvoSun, a newer entrant…produced a test cell that could reach 11.8 percent. Mass-producing cells is more complex than making a test cell, so the efficiency of market-ready cells would be lower."