Solar: Silicon vs CIGS

Silicon Solar Panel technology is the most dominant material being use these days, but new startups such as Miasolé and Nanosolar showed that a new kind of material, that although being less efficient, is several times cheaper and easier to use in flexible multiple forms. One of these thin film materials is CIGS(Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide)

Two years ago we had a shortage of polysilicon, but with today's supply and current demand, there should be no problem for companies like SunTech Power (STP) to comply with the polysilicon demand.
Thin films (ex. CIGS) are cheaper, so cheap that we could compare it to the cost of printing ink on paper.

Thin-film production from companies such as Evergreen Solar, and Energy Conversion Devices and First Solar were groing strong in the last two years, but now faces the competition from Silicon panels, that are more efficient.


The booming solar industry is in the midst of an argument over which material will become dominant in the future for harvesting sunlight and turning it into electricity.

There is a good and detailed article about this issue over at CNET. You can read it here: Silicon vs. CIGS
It's an old article but still usefull, even if we no longer face a polysilicon shortage at the moment.

Labels: CIGS, Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide, ESLR, FSLR, Polysilicon, Polysilicon shortage, solar panels, Solar power, Solar Technology, STP

posted by Ertai at 10:06 AM