First Solar expands its CDTE solar cell footprint in the US

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The U.S. solar industry will fail to meet expectations for additional capacity if the current state of federal energy policy continues on its misguided path, but that doesn’t mean all progress has stopped. For example, take the American firm First Solar. Instead of retrenching, the company is expanding its U.S. operations to meet demand for its signature CDTE solar cell technology.

CdTe vs Silicon Solar Panels

CDTE stands for cadmium telluride, a crystalline compound of the heavy metal cadmium with the metalloid tellurium. Although less efficient at converting sunlight into electricity than more familiar silicon solar cells, the CDTE formula has achieved key improvements in manufacturing cost and stability advantages over the years, leading to a 30 percent increase in its share of the U.S. utility-scale solar market by 2022.

Here in the US CDTE has been instrumental in pushing the envelope. The company has a familiar face on it Clean Technica Radar, since its launch in 1999, has improved its thin-film technology step by step. The pace of development has been relatively quick since then, establishing the startup’s initial iteration as Firm Solar Cells. For example, as of 2013, First Solar was reporting a conversion efficiency of 18.7 percent for its CDTE solar cells.

Working with a research team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, in 2019, First Solar marked a milestone toward the company’s long-term goal by 2030.

Next Steps for First Solar

As First Solar emphasizes, solar conversion performance in the lab does not necessarily reflect power supply and stability under long-term, real-world conditions. In 1995, as an iteration of its previous solar cells, First Solar began participating in a long-term, real-world study of solar cell stability at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. The study was the first in 2020 by Solar Energy to demonstrate that its CDTE technology retained 88 percent of its conversion efficiency after 25 years. This mark was later increased to more than 90% by first solar energy.

Meanwhile, First Solar has also been working on a cost-cutting angle. For example, in 2018, the company introduced its Series 5 commercial solar panel with a respectable conversion efficiency of 16.4%. The new panel deployed a larger surface area to help reduce the cost of mounting the structure.

Jumping ahead of the latest news, on Friday, First Solar announced the start of construction on a new 3.7 gigawatt factory for its Series 6 thin film technology, adding to an already substantial manufacturing footprint in the US. Construction Review Online News organizations were among those to report on the project. The location is still under negotiation, but if all goes according to plan, the facility will begin operations by the end of next year, according to the site. Full volume production will ramp up during the first six months of 2027.

CDTE solar cells go to the moon

The high-speed train wreck that passes for today’s federal government aside, the US Department of Energy has consistently promoted CDTE technology as an economical, sustainable and safe form of photovoltaic technology.

As a thin film, CdTE can be sprayed onto glass to facilitate fabrication of solar modules. Thin film solar cells can also be sprayed, painted or printed on flexible surfaces. Being lighter than silicon, thin-film technology can also be applied to buildings and other infrastructure where conventional silicon panels would be impractical.

While First Solar is pushing the manufacturing angle here on Earth, further research into CDTE technology continues apace. This includes potential applications in space. Until now, the space field relied on silicon or exotic multi-junction formulations. However, the recent explosion of activity in the space industry has called for a renewed focus on light weight, flexibility, durability, and low costs, as well as high-volume manufacturing.

In July, for example, the universities of Swansea and Loughborough in the UK announced plans to fabricate CDTE solar cells on ultra-thin glass substrates, aiming to push the UK to the front of the space solar race.

“With the rise of the global space industry – worth $17.5 billion in the UK alone – the demand for efficient, scalable solar power is increasing rapidly,” the two schools noted. “The European Space Agency predicts a jump from just 1 MW/year to 10 GWP/year of space solar demand by 2035, driven by the expansion of satellite constellations such as SpaceX Starlink and the rise of space-based manufacturing including conductors and fiber optics.”

Researchers have already reported a 23.1 conversion efficiency on Earth. Under the new program, they are targeting 20 percent efficiency in space with the help of a six-member partnership comprising Canadian firm 5N Plus and Germany’s CTF Solar, along with UK companies Extern and Teledyne Quyptech, and Britain’s Manufacturing Technology Center and Satellite Applications Catapult.

More CDTE for America

Meanwhile, in August 2022, the Department of Energy (as it then was) launched a new three-year, $20 million program called the Cadmium Telluride Accelerator Consortium. The aim was to reduce manufacturing costs, while improving conversion efficiency, with a target of 26% by 2030.

“Commercially produced CDTE panels also have the lowest carbon and water footprints and the fastest energy payback times of any panel available today,” noted the Department of Energy.

The competitive grant was awarded to a team consisting of the University of Toledo, Colorado State University, First Solar, and Sivanthan Laboratories, a technology incubator modeled after the basic research programs of Bell Labs, where the first practical solar silicon cell was introduced in 1954.

Probably. , $20 million is already dedicated to productivity research, where it is safe from the clutches of the Trump administration. Meanwhile, new developments are underway in the US. In May, for example, a research team based at New York University reported on a new method to avoid damage to solar cells during the manufacturing process.

The team focused on a delicate technique in which metal wiring is attached to a solar cell under high heat.

To prevent damage to the solar material during the process, the team applied a thin layer of buffer material, consisting of aluminum gallium oxide or alternatively silicon oxide. “The coating naturally accumulates at these vulnerable boundaries between crystal regions, protecting them while leaving the rest of the surface clear for electrical contact,” NYU reported.

“This simple and scalable solution greatly improves the power output of the cells, increasing the maximum voltage they can produce by 13% and increasing their overall power output,” the school added.

Simple and scalable that may be, but the U.S. solar industry could certainly use a return to supportive federal policy. In this case, the rest of America could use some help. While US President Donald Trump has his mind elsewhere, demand for electricity is skyrocketing and solar is the least expensive, most abundant and fastest way to add more power generation capacity to the nation’s grid.

PHOTO (CROP): US manufacturer First Solar plans to build a new 3.7 gigawatt factory, aiming to push CDTTE solar cell technology to market (courtesy of First Solar).