New opportunities for CIGS solar cells
PVcomB conducts research and technological improvement on CIGS solar cells, in close cooperation with industrial partners. © A. Kubatzki/HZB
More than 90 participants from industry and academia from Europe, Asia and USA exchanged latest results in the field of CIGS solar cells, during the “IW-CIGSTech 6” organised by PVcomB. © A. Kubatzki/HZB
Dynamic CIGS solar cell technology workshop gives rise to optimism: experts predict higher efficiencies and lean production technologies
More than 90 participants from industry and academia from Europe, Asia and USA exchanged latest results in the field of CIGS solar cells, during the “IW-CIGSTech 6” organised by PVcomB at HZB in Berlin-Adlershof from 29. to 30. April. They reported new, exciting results, ranging from record module efficiencies and significant module manufacturing simplification to solid scientific understanding of the underlying atomic-scale physics and chemistry.
CIGS-thin film solar cells are based on compound semiconductors consisting of the elements Copper, Indium, Gallium and Selenium and Sulphur. They are the most efficient thin-film solar cell technology to date. PVcomB conducts research and technological improvement on CIGS solar cells, in close cooperation with industrial partners. “We have seen very remarkable improvements in CIGS technology over the past year and many exciting new industrial and academic results were presented at the workshop”, says Rutger Schlatmann, head of the institute PVcomB at the HZB, explicitly mentioning following examples:
• A strong increase in world record cell efficiency to almost 22%, and a clear, scientifically based outlook towards 25% cells in the coming years.
• World record module efficiencies well above 16%.
• Restart of CIGS production capacity in Germany and upcoming remarkable expansion of production capacity worldwide.
• Production process simplifications (e.g. reduction of number of process steps).
• Very promising results in the field of wet processing, e.g. electrochemical deposition.
• Improved process control achieving a remarkable 98% process yield.
• Product development for very specific applications (large solar power plants with very low cost electrical power, aesthetic appearance and flexibility in design for BIPV).
“Summarizing the impressions of the workshop, there is a powerful community of CIGS technologists and academics. Many of them report rapid progress in development and there is an optimistic view on the successful growth of CIGS photovoltaics” Schlatmann concludes.
- Battery research: visualisation of aging processes operandoLithium button cells with electrodes made of nickel-manganese-cobalt oxides (NMC) are very powerful. Unfortunately, their capacity decreases over time. Now, for the first time, a team has used a non-destructive method to observe how the elemental composition of the individual layers in a button cell changes during charging cycles. The study, now published in the journal Small, involved teams from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the University of Münster, researchers from the SyncLab research group at HZB and the BLiX laboratory at the Technical University of Berlin. Measurements were carried out in the BLiX laboratory and at the BESSY II synchrotron radiation source.
- New instrument at BESSY II: The OÆSE endstation in EMILA new instrument is now available at BESSY II for investigating catalyst materials, battery electrodes and other energy devices under operating conditions: the Operando Absorption and Emission Spectroscopy on EMIL (OÆSE) endstation in the Energy Materials In-situ Laboratory Berlin (EMIL). A team led by Raul Garcia-Diez and Marcus Bär showcases the instrument’s capabilities via a proof-of-concept study on electrodeposited copper.
- An elegant method for the detection of single spins using photovoltageDiamonds with certain optically active defects can be used as highly sensitive sensors or qubits for quantum computers, where the quantum information is stored in the electron spin state of these colour centres. However, the spin states have to be read out optically, which is often experimentally complex. Now, a team at HZB has developed an elegant method using a photo voltage to detect the individual and local spin states of these defects. This could lead to a much more compact design of quantum sensors.