Both the crystalline silicon (c-Si) and thin-film camps preached an increased focus on innovation and improvements in efficiency during two separate conference sessions at Intersolar North America 2015.
Rebecca Jones-Albertus, program manager for PV R&D for the U.S. Department of Energy, spoke of DOE’s SunShot Initiative and its support of projects that improve efficiency and overcome technological barriers in solar cell materials. DOE has supported more than 50% of the world’s records in panel efficiency.
“We’d have to have 40% efficiency [of c-Si panels] and no other increase in price to reach 6 cents per kilowatt hour,” she said. “We have to work on reliability and durability.”
Jones-Albertus spoke during the “Crystalline silicon PV: The global workhorse can perform even better” session, stating that the SunShot Initiative has begun to shift focus to the overall module—not just the cell—to find areas of improvement in the frame, backsheet, ribbons, etc. Continuing to improve c-Si modules can only assert their dominance in the industry.
This unquestionable global dominance is mostly thanks to China, said Brad Mattson, CEO of Siva Power, during the “Thin-film PV: A bright future ahead” session.
“China created the modern day solar industry,” Mattson said. “They took polysilicon and built a thousand lines. Thin-film had little infrastructure at the time, but First Solar has proved there’s a lot of merit.”
With First Solar’s focus on improving the efficiency of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film panels (which just this month reached 18.6% module efficiency), along with an industry-wide concentration on “technology scaling,” Mattson said the United States could control thin-film manufacturing.
“China is committed to silicon, but thin-film expertise resides in the United States,” Mattson said. “Solar panels can be made in California cheaper and better than in China.”
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