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IBM works the cost side of the solar cell problem

By Dana Blankenhorn | Feb 12, 2010 |

There are two ways to make solar cells better.

You can make them more efficient, or you can make them for less. (Picture from IBM.)

Most of the breakthroughs reported here focus on the first goal. The more efficient a cell, the smaller the area you have to cover in order to get a given amount of electricity.

But production cost is also important.

Most of today’s efficient solar cells are made with rare materials like cadmium and indium. Gallium-arsenide or indium-selenide might convert 30% of the solar radiation striking them, but they cost big money.

Lights and mirrors can concentrate solar radiation on the cell, but now you’re building a power plant, not installing a cell. Multicrystalline silicon also offers high efficiency, but they can be expensive to make.

A paper newly published by IBM aims to bend that cost curve in three ways:

  1. IBM’s new cells are made of a popular low-cost materials list — copper, indium, gallium, and selenide (CIGS — cute acronym).
  2. They’re relatively efficient, 9.7%. That’s roughly a 50% improvement from other CIGS cells.
  3. As with new solar cells from Nanosolar, these are produced from a liquid slurry that can literally be printed.

IBM is not trying to get into the solar cell production business. They are looking to license the basic technology, and think they can get its efficiency up to 12% — close to the low-end for multicrystalline cells.

Solar cell technology is becoming much like batteries, with breakthroughs piling on one another so that before one can get into production it’s superseded by another.

But so long as any solar cell installation pays back its costs in a reasonable period of time, it can have value. We don’t have to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

A few years ago, on another blog, I suggested that the lack of standards for solar panels might hamper growth. I still believe that. But these new printed-panel techniques change the game somewhat. Such solar cells can be created to fit the space available.

We still need standard connectors, and upgrade paths. But the basis of solar technology is changing.

And rapid innovation is giving America a place in its future.

 
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  •  
    1

    riskfree

    02/16/10 | Report as spam

    RE: IBM works the cost side of the solar cell problem

    I am currently in the process of starting a business that will make all the financed payments for the buyer, on an alternative energy product/service.

    Athenapro.com is in development, please feel free to take a look. Please contact me with any questions. I still need help in implementing.

    Thomas Adair
    thomasadair@live.com

  •  
    2

    LarryPTL

    02/16/10 | Report as spam

    Common sense

    Unfortunately, is not all that common. Its good to see an American company (IBM) use some common sense when it comes to the BIG picture of solar power.

  •  
    3

    rbrooks802

    02/16/10 | Report as spam

    RE: IBM works the cost side of the solar cell problem

    Don't wait. Install as soon as possible, you can always upgrade at a later date. (Solar companies take note.) We (the planet) need to use alternate energy sources now.

  •  
    4

    JimboNobody

    02/16/10 | Report as spam

    I'm confused

    Is Indium rare or not? Or maybe it's rare, but cheap. Though that doesn't make much sense.

  •  
    5

    Micromush

    02/16/10 | Report as spam

    RE: IBM works the cost side of the solar cell problem

    Very confusing article. On one paragraph the listed minerals are rare and expensive, and in the other paragraph they are listed as cheap. Don't you proof read your articles before posting them?

  •  
    6

    rcasey101

    02/16/10 | Report as spam

    possibilities for roofing materials

    What if everyone started replacing their 30-year roofs with layers of this material having simple contacts to form a power generation grid? Surely someone can come up with a weather-proof sheet printed with these simple materials to do double duty of keeping the weather out and letting the sunlight contribute to home electrical usage.

    Great reference to Voltaire, by the way.

  •  
    7

    DanaBlankenhorn

    02/16/10 | Report as spam

    CIGS is cheaper than the other materials mentioned

    The new IBM technology is based on something called CIGS, which does
    not use rare earths.

  •  
    8

    Mike_Andrews

    06/03/10 | Report as spam

    You can also work the cost side by using concentrators.

    Concentrator Photovoltiac (CPV) systems can also be much cheaper by using a small fraction of the solar cell material. Multiple companies e.g. Amonix (www.amonix.com) and Sol Focus (www.solfocus.com) already have commercial systems that concentrate the sun 500x to use much less solar cell material. Another startup Sol Solution (www.Sol-Solution.net) concentrates and seperates the spectrum for higher efficiencies.

    P.S. "Lights and mirrors can concentrate solar radiation on the cell, but now you?re building a power plant, not installing a cell" should probably say "Lenses and/or mirrors" and you are ALWAYS building a power plant. With concentrators you also have the advantage of a 2-axis tracker which will give you a 30% to 40% improvement.

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