International cooperative organizations from the University of Hasselblad, IMEC, vito, EnergyVille and PERCISTAND have achieved 25% efficiency for the first time in thin-film solar cells.
This research shows that thin-film solar can produce efficiency potentials comparable to traditional crystalline silicon solar cells, and this efficiency has not reached the upper limit of thin-film solar cells.
It is not clear which type of thin-film solar cell was used in the test, however the documents have descriptions of "perovskite" and "CIGS". In 2016, researchers used perovskite and CIGS thin film batteries to achieve an efficiency of 17.8% on a 3.7 cm2 module area.
It is expected that the perovskite / CIGS laminated battery module will be available in the market within 8 years, and the efficiency can reach 25%.
Some netizens have speculated that the traditional nano-scale CIGS technology is a print-type system, which has no efficiency requirements for the components. Can CIGS be printed on the substrate of a single crystal photovoltaic cell and then sprayed on the third layer of perovskite? To get more than 30% battery efficiency?
You can boldly expect 40% efficiency. Stacked photovoltaic cells can last for 30 years. Solid-state batteries are cheap, dense, and not easy to catch fire. The light energy band gap is variable, the energy storage cost is low, and the duration is long enough to make people think about this product. Generate expectations.
As CIGS thin-film photovoltaic modules have excellent photoelectric performance and color, size can be customized and other advantages, especially suitable for BIPV (Building Photovoltaic Integration) field, the improvement of module efficiency will help to better open the building energy-saving market.
In order to promote the application of CIGS products in BIPV, the National Energy Group has created a demonstration project for integrated copper and indium gallium selenium thin film photovoltaic building (CIGS-BIPV) in the Country Garden Lihu Technology Town in Guangdong, which has been running for more than a year now.
Like the National Energy Group, CNBM is optimistic about the future of CIGS technology. It is understood that the efficiency of CIGS (glass-based) thin-film solar cell chips produced by German photovoltaic company Avancis acquired by China Building Materials Group has reached 17.9%, and the effective area photoelectric conversion efficiency has reached Up 16.4%.
In 2019, Shenhua PV announced that its copper indium gallium selenium (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic modules produced by its German production line set a world record for the efficiency of CIGS mass-produced modules with a full-area photoelectric conversion efficiency of 17.6%.