Continuous roll-to-roll a-Si photovoltaic manufacturing technology. Final subcontract report, 1 April 1992--30 September 1995
- Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., Troy, MI (US)
ECD has made important progress in the development of materials, device designs, and manufacturing processes required for the continued advancement of practical photovoltaic technology{sub 1-23}. ECD has pioneered and continues further development of two key proprietary technologies, with significant potential for achieving the cost goals necessary for widespread growth of the photovoltaic market: (1) a low cost, roll-to- roll continuous substrate thin-film solar cell manufacturing process; (2) a high efficiency, monolithic, multiple-junction, spectrum- splitting thin-film amorphous silicon alloy device structure. Commercial production of multiple-junction a-Si alloy modules has been underway at ECD and its joint venture company for a number of years using ECD's proprietary roll-to-roll process and numerous advantages of this technology have been demonstrated. These include relatively low semiconductor material cost, relatively low process cost, a light-weight, rugged and flexible substrate that results in lowered installed costs of PV systems, and environmentally safe materials. Nevertheless, the manufacturing cost per watt of PV modules from our current plant remains high. In order to achieve high stable efficiency and low manufacturing cost, ECD has, at ECD's expense, engineered and constructed a 2 MW production line and a 200 kW pilot line, incorporating earlier ECD research advances in device efficiency through the use of multi-junction spectrum-splitting and high performance back-reflector cell design. Under this subcontract six tasks were directed towards achieving this goal. They are: Task I: Optimization of back-reflector system; Task II: Optimization of the Si-Ge narrow bandgap solar cells; Task III: Optimization of the stable efficiency of photovoltaic modules; Task IV: Demonstration of serpentine web continuous roll-to-roll deposition technology; Task V: Material cost reductions; and Task VI: Improving the module assembly process.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., Troy, MI (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-83CH10093
- OSTI ID:
- 205911
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/TP-411-20588; ON: DE96000531; TRN: US200319%%248
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Supercedes report DE96000531; PBD: Feb 1996; PBD: 1 Feb 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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