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Solar Technology Innovation Cycles

Solar Technology Innovation Cycles. Specific challenge

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Solar Technology Innovation Cycles

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  1. Solar Technology Innovation Cycles • Specific challenge • PV technologies are expected to continue to advance, in terms of cell efficiency/m2, material volume, and resulting material costs. As installed production volume increases it may become increasingly difficult to convert existing manufacturing capability over to the latest PV technology. • Idea for Meeting the Challenge • Manufacturing system design based upon technology forecasting • Approach • Identify/forecast major PV technology trends, use technology roadmap to guide design of manufacturing systems – optimize flexibility and modularity to maximize forecasted manufacturing equipment life-cycle • What is the Manufacturing Challenge • Obsolescence of manufacturing cells due to rapid changes in PV technology.

  2. Reliability of Large Scale Solar Applications • Specific challenge • Interconnects are a major cause of PV module failures. As installation sizes increase, the number of interconnects increases reducing installation reliability • Idea for Meeting the Challenge • Increased cell (and module) unit sizes can reduce the number of interconnects per m2 in an installation, potentially improving reliability and reducing module assembly cost • Approach • Thin film PV on rolled substrate lends itself to large cell sizes, however today there are manufacturing limitations • What is the Manufacturing Challenge • Production quality (defects/m2) limits the practical size of single cells • Current thin film production technologies on rolled substrate limit the practical width

  3. Thin Film III-V Materials for Solar Cells • Specific challenge • Develop materials that support not only high efficiency photovoltaics, but also high rate manufacturing in support of emerging concentrator solar energy demand. • Idea for Meeting the Challenge • Thin Film III-V devices • Approach • Develop the ability to produce the most efficient photovoltaics device materials and devices (i.e., multi-junction III-Vs) within a roll-to-roll system. • What is the Manufacturing Challenge • The production device-quality III-V materials, normally produced via organomettalic vapor phase epitaxy on expensive and fragile single crystal substrates, in a thin-film format.

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