Emerging Solar Technologies to be Covered in Munich

This June, companies from all over the energy harvesting supply chain will come together for Energy Harvesting & Storage and Wireless Sensor Networks and RTLS Europe 2011. Companies such as SolarPrint, SunFlake, Konarka and G24 Innovations will be presenting their progress and outlook for the next few years on the emerging PV technologies and markets. For more information on this event, visit www.IDTechEx.com/Munich.

CIGS: rigid or flexible?
The large majority of CIGS installations are currently on glass as the efficiencies achieved with CIGS solar panels are comparable to thin films such as CdTe. But, the ability of competitive technologies to sell their modules at much lower costs, mainly due to the really large capacities they’ve achieved, makes the market a difficult one to penetrate. Most CIGS manufacturers are nowhere near the GW capacities of companies such as Suntech Power and First Solar hence, find it difficult to reach the cost/watt offered by the leaders. Solar Frontier in Japan with the creation of the first CIS GW manufacturing facility is poised to break that rule.

Some of the smaller capacity CIGS companies have decided to go down the path of flexible substrates and flexible solar cells. Ascent Solar, Global Solar and Nanosolar are examples in this space and are targeting slightly different markets, building integrated photovoltaics, vehicle integrated photovoltaics, portable power. These are markets that are not as developed as those for rooftop and solar farm installations but they also offer a much less competitive landscape for smaller companies to start with.

OPV and DSSCs: markets for flexible solar cells.
Problems arise when newer, underperforming technologies (such as OPV and DSSCs) need to compete with existing, further developed technologies for the same market. It is difficult to imagine a technology with an efficiency of 5% and a lifetime of approximately 5 years, competing in the roof top or solar farm installation space, with technologies having double, triple, or even quadruple the efficiency and lifetime, even if these existing technologies are rigid and heavy. Flexibility doesn’t make for an unshakable advantage in this space.

The creation of new markets is what’s necessary in these cases and that’s something that’s being demonstrated by the companies involved with developing OPVs and DSSCs. Examples include energy harvesting for small devices such as wireless sensors (G24 Innovations in Wales, UK is focusing its efforts in this space), solar power integrated onto portable devices, clothing or apparel (SunFlake in Denmark is focusing on developing nano-structured PVs for portable power applications); applications where low efficiency or lifetime of only a few years is not in any way an impediment for commercialization. These markets are definitely not enough to sustain a whole industry but they do give the chance to new companies to develop initial products with less stringent requirements and bring them enough revenue to further fund development work. . Looking further into the future, development work on the viability of grander projects is also being undertaken; examples include Irish DSSC start-up SolarPrint is collaborating with the FIAT research centre, Infineon and Webasto Solar in order to bring into the market solar cells encasing cars, that would help recharge batteries for electric vehicles. Also, the research collaboration between Dyesol and Tata Steel is aimed at the development of DSSCs that would pe.

Organic PVs are also being developed and utilized in place-of-purchase interactive signage, posters and smart labels, harvesting energy from fluorescent lighting, which is prevalent in retail environments and very suitable to OPV absorption spectra.

A lot of research and development work is simultaneously taking place. Current record efficiencies for OPVs have already surpassed 8% (examples including Konarka, Heliatek and Solarmer) while only a few years ago that an efficiency of 5% felt like a distant future. Lifetimes are also being increased and OPV cells can now operate for several years. As volumes increase, costs will also become competitive.

Growth trends over the next decade
IDTechEx is forecasting slow growth over the next decade. In 2011 out of the overall thin film market, less than 5% is going to be on flexible substrates. Further developments and work on roll to roll processing optimization will lead to approximately 10% of thin film technologies being fully flexible, and a total value according to IDTechEx of over $4 Billion by 2021. Approximately 75% of that is going to be inorganic technologies but by that time, OPV and DSSCs will have reached performance levels adequate to start competing more seriously.

Quelle: Energy Harvesting and Storage Europe 2011