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17 Jun 2002
Inexpensive solar cells based on the semiconductor, copper indium diselenide (CIS), will be commercially available in 3 to 5 years, predict engineers at the University of Florida, USA.
CIS can be deposited as films that are only 2 or 3 micrometres thick. This is about 100 times thinner than the silicon layers on conventional solar cells, making CIS based solar cells much cheaper. They are also light, a desirable feature for space applications.
The team in Florida has developed inexpensive techniques for depositing thin layers of the material. One researcher, Sheng Li, said, "We use a bilayer processing technique under high vacuum. This method can be used to deposit CIS thin films onto any substrate, such as plastic, glass and steel."
Li says that the goal now is to optimise the technique to produce higher efficiencies of energy conversion. "We have already achieved 8 to 10% efficiency by this method and our goal is 13 to 15%." Other groups have shown efficiencies of 18%, similar to that of silicon cells.
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