ZSW has produced a thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide solar cell with 20.3 percent efficiency. Scientists at the Zentrum für Sonne- nenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg, Germany (Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research, ZSW) have again achieved a success in striving to increase the electricity yield of solar cells, beating their own previous record of 20.1 percent efficiency. The Stuttgart researchers contend that with this performance, they have exceeded their own world record – and minimize to only 0.1 percent the advance the performance of multi-crystalline solarcells still dominating the market.

The new record-breaking solar cells from ZSW are made of extremely thin lay- ers of copper, indium, gallium and diselenide. The researchers boast that the new results should significantly improve the cost-effectiveness of CIGS thin-film photovoltaics over the medium term. The area of the world record cell is 0.5 square centimetres. The semi- conducting CIGS layer and the contact layers have a total thickness of only four thousandths of a millimetre, making them 50 times thinner than standard silicon cells.

"Our researchers have made the cells in a CIGS laboratory coating plant using a modified co-evaporation proc- ess, which in principle can be scaled up to commercial production processes," said Dr. Michael Powalla, Member of the Board and Head of the Photovoltaics Division at ZSW. The Fraunhofer ISE in Freiburg, Germany has confirmed the new results. However, it would take a while before the increased efficiency of CIGS solar cells can be com- mercially utilised, Powalla said.

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24.08.2010, ZSW

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