US-based First Solar has set a new world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) research cell conversion efficiency of 21 per cent; breaking its own record of 20.4 per cent from February 2014.
First Solar said the record-setting cell was built at its Ohio manufacturing factory and R&D center, using processes and materials designed for commercial-scale manufacturing. It was certified at the Newport Corporation's Technology and Applications Center (TAC)PV Lab.
The record has been documented in the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Best Research Cell Efficiencies reference chart.
The CdTe research cell ranks above copper indium gallium diselenide based solar cells (CIGS) with efficiency of 20.9 per cent and above multicrystalline silicon (mSi), which peaked at 20.4 per cent in 2004
"While competing technologies are using increasingly costly materials and cell processes in order to deliver moderate performance gains, First Solar is establishing a rapid path to industry-leading energy densities, while simultaneously improving manufacturing metrics," says Raffi Garabedian, First Solar's chief technology officer.
The company is anticipating a 22 per cent research cell efficiency milestone in 2015. It also noted that its lead commercial line was producing modules with 14.1 per cent average efficiency at the end of the second quarter of 2014.
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