Current Magazine

Scientists Significantly Increase Cadmium Telluride Solar Cells Efficiency

Posted on the 16 August 2013 by Dailyfusion @dailyfusion
CdTe solar cells on a flexible metal foil (left) and electron microscopy (EM) image of the solar cell structure in the substrate configuration (right) with front electrical contact (uppermost layer), central CdTe layer and metal back contact (lowest layer), all deposited on the substrate (glass is used as an example for ease and clarity of EM imaging). (Credit: See citation at the end of this article)

Flexible thin film solar cells that can be produced by roll-to-roll manufacturing are a highly promising route to cheap solar electricity. Now scientists from Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have made significant progress in paving the way for the industrialization of flexible, light-weight and low-cost cadmium telluride solar cells on metal foils. They succeeded in increasing their efficiency from below eight to 11.5 percent by doping the cells with copper. Read more »



Back to Featured Articles on Logo Paperblog