02.25.16
First Solar, Inc. announced it has established yet another world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) research cell conversion efficiency, achieving 22.1% efficiency certified at the Newport Corporation’s Technology and Applications Center (TAC) PV Lab.
The achievement confirms that First Solar is on pace with its established research cell roadmap, and validates CdTe’s growing competitive advantage over multi-crystalline silicon technology and other commercial thin film PV.
The record-setting research cell was constructed at the company’s Perrysburg, OH manufacturing factory and Research & Development Center using processes and materials suitable for commercial-scale manufacturing. In addition to the Newport TAC Lab certification, the record has been documented in the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) “Best Research Cell Efficiencies” reference chart.
This is the ninth substantial update to CdTe record efficiency since 2011.
“We are tracking very closely to a technology roadmap we first presented in 2013 and revised upward in March 2014,” said Raffi Garabedian, First Solar’s CTO. “At that time, we said we’d hit a 22% research cell efficiency milestone by the end of 2015. We’ve delivered on that promise. We fully expect to further separate ourselves from the pack in coming years.”
Garabedian noted that First Solar’s lead manufacturing lines were producing PV modules with 16.4% conversion efficiency in 4Q 2015.
The achievement confirms that First Solar is on pace with its established research cell roadmap, and validates CdTe’s growing competitive advantage over multi-crystalline silicon technology and other commercial thin film PV.
The record-setting research cell was constructed at the company’s Perrysburg, OH manufacturing factory and Research & Development Center using processes and materials suitable for commercial-scale manufacturing. In addition to the Newport TAC Lab certification, the record has been documented in the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) “Best Research Cell Efficiencies” reference chart.
This is the ninth substantial update to CdTe record efficiency since 2011.
“We are tracking very closely to a technology roadmap we first presented in 2013 and revised upward in March 2014,” said Raffi Garabedian, First Solar’s CTO. “At that time, we said we’d hit a 22% research cell efficiency milestone by the end of 2015. We’ve delivered on that promise. We fully expect to further separate ourselves from the pack in coming years.”
Garabedian noted that First Solar’s lead manufacturing lines were producing PV modules with 16.4% conversion efficiency in 4Q 2015.