Thin Film Solar Cells: New World Record for Solar Cell Efficiency

Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have developed a new material for solar energy. The material is a flexible polymer with thin film solar cells on it. What is truly amazing about this, however, is that it has broken the world record for the most efficient solar cell, converting 20.4% of sunlight into electricity. It is able to provide cost-effective solar energy and is currently being scaled-up for industrial use.

Many scientists and engineers are trying to develop low-cost and efficient solar cells that can be used on a large scale. The cells must be easy to manufacture and highly efficient. Empa’s Laboratory for Thin Film and Photovoltaics is at the forefront of solar cell development. In 1999 they produced a solar cell capable of converting 12.8% of sunlight into energy.  This was the first world record they received. In 2005 they broke the world record again with a 14.1% efficient solar cell. They then broke the record again in 2011 with 18.7% efficient solar cells followed by 17.6% in 2010. On January 20^th, 2013, they broke the world record again.

What seems to be quite startling is that the flexible CIGS solar cells are in fact more efficient than the record value of 20.3% CIGS solar cells on lass substrates. “We have now – finally – managed to close the “efficiency gap” to solar cells based on polycrystalline silicon wafers or CIGS thin film cells on glass”, says Ayodhya N. Tiwari, the leader of the project.

You may ask, “what’s the big deal?” Thin film, lightweight and flexible solar cells offer many applications such as solar farms, roods facades, automobiles and even possible hand held devices. It has the potential to significantly cut the cost of solar energy. It is important to note that this technology will be available for industrial use in the very near future. Empa is collaborating with Flisom, a company dedicated to the industrialization of flexible CIGS solar cells, to manufacture the cells. “The series of record efficiencies for flexible CIGS solar cells developed at Empa demonstrates that thin film solar cells can match the excellent performance of polycrystalline silicon cells. Now it is time for the next step, the scale-up of the technology to cover large areas in a cost-efficient roll-to-roll manufacturing process with an industrial partner”, says Gian-Luca Bona the Director of Empa.

I believe this a huge leap ahead in the field of sustainable development. It is essential that we do not rely on the burning of fossil fuels as our major source of energy. We are slowly learning how to harness the natural energy that we are exposed to everyday and put it to better use. If all organisms use the sun as their primary source of energy, why shouldn’t we?