Empa scientists made a new debut and one year later beat their own efficiency record for CIGS solar cells on a polymer film
Flexible solar cells are suitable for applications in buildings, vehicles, satellites and mobile devices
(Rinnovabili.it) – The series of photovoltaic recordings of Professor Ayodhya N. Tiwari and his team. Tiwari, head of the Empa Laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics, is working on flexible solar cells. A time in which you have amassed a number of unique achievements by pushing the performance bar higher than ever for several key technologies. Including one based on CIGS, ie copper (di)indium gallium selenide. This material has a high ability to absorb solar energy, which allows it to make cells (or films) much thinner than other semiconductors.
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The “wins streak” began in the now distant 1999, when the Tiwari team achieved an efficiency record with CIGS of 12.8%, and then surpassed itself year after year. In 2021, the realized value was 21.4%. “In a high efficiency frontier system, every small increment requires careful investigation of the factors that limit performance and requires an innovative approach to overcome the challenge.”And the Empa explains In a press release. Today comes a new step forward. As independent testimonials show, Empa flexible solar cells are capable of Convert 22.2% of incident light into electricity. Unique value in the world for this type of photovoltaic cells.
The current improvement is attributed to the light-absorbing semiconductor layer alloy to improve the electronic properties. In detail, these flexible CIGS solar cells are processed on a polymer film, which leads to semiconductor deposition by low-temperature co-evaporation method. Empa scientist Shiro Nishiwaki modified the composition of the absorber layer to improve device performance and output voltage. The results were presented last September 26, 2022 in Milan, by Romain Caron’s team.
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