First Solar announces CdTe solar efficiency record
First Solar has announced a world record for CdTe photovoltaic (PV) module conversion efficiency, achieving 18.6 percent aperture efficiency for an advanced full size module.
The record was measured and certified by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
An 18.6 percent aperture area efficiency corresponds to a full area conversion efficiency of 18.2 percent, which beats the best recorded multi-crystalline silicon PERC module with an approximate full area efficiency of 17.7 percent (based on 19.1 percent aperture efficiency and published module area data).
This achievement is the eighth substantial update to CdTe record efficiency since 2011, according to the company, continuing a trend of improvements. In January, First Solar produced a research cell with 21.5 percent conversion efficiency, certified at the Newport Corporation's Technology and Applications Centre (TAC) PV Lab and confirmed by NREL.
"First Solar's CdTe thin film is now rightly categorised as a high performance product," said Raffi Garabedian, First Solar's CTO. "At one time, we might have been characterised as a low cost, low efficiency technology, but consistent with our technology projections we are now proving that CdTe thin film delivers both industry-leading performance AND sustainable thin-film cost structures."
"Our CdTe modules are now more efficient than the best multi-crystalline Si modules, and we still have a great deal of technology head room for further innovation," Garabedian said.
Nick Strevel, First Solar's senior manager of technology, noted that given the same installed nameplate module capacity (Watts) with equivalent ground coverage ratio, First Solar's CdTe product will provide up to 8 percent more useable energy from the same land area than m-Si.
"A narrow focus on simple metrics such as standard-test-condition (STC) efficiency or cost per STC-watt obscures the actual value of solar generation technologies," said Strevel. "Customers value energy produced by a solar power plant (kWh), not its nominal STC power rating. Metrics with greater relevance to real-world conditions - including specific energy yield, energy density, cost/kWh and long term reliability - ultimately tell a much more comprehensive story of real-world performance and are more influential in reducing Levelised Cost of solar Electricity."
