Scientists from Switzerland create a flexible solar panel with record efficiency
As you know, flexible solar panels are good because they can be placed on almost any surface with a complex structure. This will greatly expand the field of application of solar panels, and the so-called roll production will also reduce the cost of the process, make the "green" energy source even more accessible.
Flexible panels have been around for a long time, but their main problem has been low efficiency. And in extreme scientific work, scientists from Switzerland seem to have succeeded in solving it.
How did you improve the efficiency of flexible panels?
Research team from the Swiss Federal Laboratory for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) demonstrated to the public a flexible solar cell that they created based on CIGS - connections.
The tests carried out have shown that the new flexible solar panel has an efficiency of 21.38%, which is a new world record for this type of panel. The previous record was 20.8%.
At first glance, the difference in productivity is not so great, but this increase was made possible thanks to many years of work by scientists.
CIGS-cells and stages of their development
So the very first CIGS cell, realized from a compound of copper, indium, gallium and selenium, created back in 1999, boasted an efficiency of 12.8%. By 2005, engineers had raised the efficiency to 14.1%, in 2010 the efficiency was already 17.6%. Already in 2011, scientists managed to achieve an efficiency indicator of 18.7%, and in 2013 the efficiency was 20.4%.
It was possible to raise the efficiency to 20.8% only after six years of hard work and constant laboratory tests. This was the way for CIGS panels to their next record of 21.38%, which brought flexible panels in terms of efficiency to classic effective silicon panels, which are actively used throughout the world.
How did you manage to achieve a new record
This record-breaking performance was made possible by improvements in low-temperature joint technology. evaporation of materials required to build up a semiconductor film on the thinnest polymer layer.
So such settings allowed to increase the efficiency, the reality of which was confirmed by independent experts from the German Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems.
So the element obtained in the laboratory withstood the efficiency level of 21.38% for a couple of months of continuous tests, which is a direct confirmation of the sufficiently high reliability of the technology.
Despite the clear success, it is too early to talk about full-fledged commercial use, since scientists still have a long way to go to optimize and improve the production steps of flexible solar panels.
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