CIGS Thin-Film Technology Revolutionizes Solar Industry Distributed Generation goes Mainstream

Monday, 30 September 2013, 20:30 HKT/SGT

Author: Professor ChenJie Director at National Institute of Clean and-low-carbon Energy (NICE)

HONG KONG, Sept 30, 2013 - (ACN Newswire) - A brief introduction to Professor ChenJie - Prof. Dr. Jie Chen earned his BE degree in Xi'an Jiaotong University China in 1984 and his Ph.D in University of Science & Technology of China (USTC) in 1999. He currently is the director of solar energy center in National Institute of Clean and-low-carbon Energy (NICE), Beijing. He has successfully established the nano electronic devices laboratory in 2005 at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fur Materialien und Energie (formerly HMI), Germany and was the director of the laboratory from then on. Mr. Jie Chen is an expert of thousand talent program.

Under Mr. Chen's leadership, his team made the first vertical nanowire field effect transistor in flexible polymer foils and the invention has been use in new generation flexible OLED display. A lot of innovation techniques invented by his team have been used in industrial process of fabricating CIGS solar cells.

Mr. Chen's academic and engineering activities cover photovoltaic solar energy, material, and nano technology. He participated in accomplishing EU's strategic research for photovoltaic technology in 2007.

Where is the way for China's PV industry? With the introduction of a series of favorable policies for solar industry development, such as Guidelines from the State Council on Encouraging Healthy Solar Industry Developments and Guidelines from the State Council on Financial Services Supporting Distributed Solar Generation, the trend of distributed solar power generation becoming the mainstream development direction has turned out increasingly clear. Thin-film solar battery is beyond doubt the most ideal solar battery technology applied in distributed generation. In virtue of its distinct advantages of being thin-film and flexible, thin-film technology will inevitably become the mainstream solar technology in the future and is expected to witness large-scale application in Chinese market.

CISG Thin-Film Solar Technology Features Distinct Advantages
PV solar industry mainly comprises two major solar battery technology routes: one is crystalline silicon technology, including monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon solar battery; another is thin film technology, the most potential of which is Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) thin film solar technology.

Thin film solar battery has prominent advantages as compared to crystalline silicon battery: the first is the low industry chain energy consumption; the second is more and wider choices of materials for making thin film and diversified manufacturing technology; the third is that thin film battery has higher generating capacity; the fourth is that thin film batter is lighter, flexible which could be more widely used and suitable to fit onto the rooftops and building integrated photovoltaics; the fifth is that CIGS battery in thin-film solar technology currently has the highest conversion efficiency, reaching nearly 20% in the lab. According to the conversion efficiency data of the products of the world's renowned solar power companies in May 2013, the best product of MiaSole, the world's leading CIGS thin film batter manufacturer, has reached conversion efficiency of 15.7%, the highest in the market.

Most important of all, generating capacity of CIGS battery is approximately 20%-30% higher than that of silicon solar battery in actual operation. For this reason, the LCOE of CIGS battery could be lower than that of silicon solar battery. With the advance of CIGS thin film solar technology at a tremendous pace, conversion efficiency could be further improved rapidly. Especially after the GW-grade mass production, the cost advantages of CIGS technology could be given full play to with lower LCOE.

In fact, quite a few experts believe that CIGS technology will be the important solar technology which could most boost the feed-in tariff of the solar power generation

Proven CIGS Technology Route Promotes Industrialization Development
Currently, CIGS technology routes fall into three categories, namely physical method, chemical method and printing method. There are mainly two methods which could be put into commercial mass production, namely sputtering method and co-evaporation method which pertain to physical method. Having the whole world in view, CIGS industrialization has entered into mature period. MiaSole and Global Solar of US, Solibro and BOSCH of Germany as well as Solar Frontier of Japan are paradigm enterprises which are enable to successfully apply CIGS technology in large-scale industrialization.

China's CIGS industrialization is entitled to extraordinary huge development potential, while the blue-ocean market of distributed generation energetically pushed forward by China will present unprecedented opportunities for thin film PV products. Concerning China's market, currently most solar power plants are large-scale ground-mounted power plants and small-sized distributed power plants only account for 20%, while distributed generation accounts for over 80% in world's many developed countries such as Japan, US and Europe. As large-scale ground-mounted power plants require land of vast area, such power plants will have comparative advantages in western China with scarce population. While in eastern or central developed regions, distributed generation will inevitably become the future mainstream development direction. As such, in the foreseeable future, distributed generation will occupy a larger and larger proportion in China.

With regard to practical application, thin film solar battery is more suitable to fit onto rooftop and distributed PV constructions such as BIPV. As distributed generation mainly depends on rooftop power plants, thin film battery especially flexible light battery has higher generating capacity in cloudy and hot days as compared to silicon solar cell. Also being light, thin film battery could cling to buildings. In addition, small-sized distributed power plants are mainly built upon rooftops which could substantially reduce land costs.

Localization of Leading CIGS Thin-Film Technology: Technology Localization the Key and National Support for Independent R&D the Guarantee

Different from other solar technologies, CIGS thin-film technology requires three major elements: equipment, technology and staff, not a single one of which can be omitted. Localization of equipment is not simply copying production technology, whilst the key for the success lies in how to realize localization of materials for manufacturing batteries and localization of technology. During the process, China needs to give more attention and support to innovative enterprises in respect of core technology R&D. The substantial support offered to industry leaders and leading enterprises with independent innovative and R&D capabilities is a significant guarantee for improving China's core competitiveness.

Topic: Press release summary Sectors: Daily Finance, Energy, Alternatives
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