Oerlikon's optimised Zinc Oxide bolsters thin film solar performance

Solar PV manufacturer Oerlikon Solar has this week claimed that it has increased the capacity of its thin film solar fabrication plant by 50 per cent using a new chemistry.

The firm has developed a new process called Amorph High Performance, an update to its existing Amorph Basic technology, which it claims has made its solar cells seven per cent efficient - representing a 16 per cent increase in solar energy output on its previous technology.

"A key element is the optimisation of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) material used for TCO (transparent conducting oxide)," explained Chris O'Brien, head of market development for the company in North America. "This ZnO material has superior light trapping characteristics that result in higher efficiency, compared with Amorph Basic, which does not use ZnO material for TCO."

According to the company the chemistry change yields more watts per module, and more panels per month. It also claims that the increase in capacity has been achieved without any increase in capital cost.

O'Brien claimed that as a result the firm should be able to reduce the cost per MW of its cells. "We see a clear path to improve the performance of this technology to deliver the capability to produce PV modules at significantly under $1.00/W within the next two years," O'Brien added.

The company's manufacturing technique uses amorphous silicon that can be deposited over a large area, rather than the crystalline silicon that is sliced to form wafers.

Oerlikon Solar, a subsidiary of Swiss Oerlikon Corp, makes thin film modules for solar distributor clients. Its technology is suitable for applications including rooftop panels and large scale utility power projects.

Industry watchers are keeping a close eye on improvements in the efficiency of thin film solar technologies amidst hopes that the approach could soon replace more established crystalline silicon panels.

Thin film cells are typically cheaper to produce than crystalline silicon cells, but often boast significantly lower conversion efficiencies. Any improvement in the efficiency of thin film cells raises the prospect of the technology becoming more cost effective than silicon-based panels, and are number of thin film manufacturers, such as Oerlikon, NanoSolar, First Solar and Miasole, are now racing towards that point.