- Category: Solar 20 May 2011 - Published on Friday, 20 May 2011
05:46 - Hits (707) By L.J. Polintan Scientists at Empa, the
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology,
have improved on their previous flexible solar cell and achieved
a record-breaking efficiency of 18.7 percent. Flexible copper
indium gallium selenide or C.I.G.S. solar cells are still an
emerging field. But a team of scientists, led by Ayodhya N.
Tiwari, have worked through the years to improve the material’s
efficiency. “The new record value for flexible C.I.G.S. solar
cells of 18.7 percent nearly closes the efficiency gap to solar
cells based on polycrystalline silicon wafers or C.I.G.S. thin-
film cells on glass,” said Mr. Tiwari. The team’s previously
made flexible solar cell, with an efficiency of 17.5 percent,
was a steel foil covered with impurity diffusion barriers – a
thin coating of material that prevents diffusion – between the
C.I.G.S. layers at around 550 degrees Celsius. Latest News -
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