On February 5, 2015, FirstSolar, one of the world's leading manufacturers of solar photovoltaic modules, announced that its cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cell conversion efficiency reached 21.5%, setting a new record. The record has been certified by the Technology and Applications Center (TAC) Photovoltaic Laboratories of Newport Corporation, a global leader in high-tech products and technology solutions.
FirstSolar emphasized that this achievement underscores FirstSolar’s ​​position as a “leader†in the battery efficiency research landscape and confirms CdTe's competitive advantage over traditional crystalline silicon technology.
The company also announced that after a series of rigorous long-term composite stress environmental experiments, commercial components have passed the “Atlas25+†certification, which indicates that commercial mass production can keep up with the pace of new research and development achievements.
Record-breaking photovoltaic cells have been registered by NREL
A new world record solar cell made by FirstSolar's manufacturing facility and R&D center in Perrysburg, Ohio, using appropriate processes and materials suitable for commercial production, has been recorded in the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Reference Table for "Best Battery Efficiency for Research" - Since 2011, this is the eighth time that CdTe's efficiency has significantly improved its world record, and it has been a firm confirmation that performance has rapidly improved.
"The company's latest battery efficiency is the result of our unwavering research in materials science and CdTe solar cell device physics," said Raffi Garabedian, Chief Technology Officer at FirstSolar.
“However, our achievements are by no means 'all things we have done' and we have benefited from our cooperation with many parties such as academia, national laboratories and our industrial partners (most notably the GE Global Research Center). The research and achievements of the industry have resulted in further optimization of our manufacturing process, which has helped to further increase the performance of the actual equipment to the theoretical limits."
“FirstSolar is uniquely capable of transforming new results into cost-effective, reliable products with adaptable thin-film manufacturing processes and the team’s dedication to scientific design,†said Garabedian.
FirstSolar values ​​the durability of components
Garabedian emphasized that FirstSolar has the capability to meet or even exceed the planning of the battery, components and business technology fields in view of its persistent investment in R&D of CdTe technology.
In March 2014, FirstSolar launched a technology roadmap, which is expected to achieve 22% efficiency in 2015. "Given our increasing trend in battery efficiency improvement and the fact that it is only in February, we are confident that we will achieve or exceed our roadmap expectations," said Garabedian.
Atlas25+ certification focuses on durability
As always, FirstSolar's strategy of attaching importance to the durability of components is constantly "blossoming results" - commercial mass production products have this property. At the end of January, First Solar received Atlas25+ certification after a series of stringent long-term composite stress environmental tests.
The Atlas25+ test protocol includes long-term exposure to the test environment to examine the durability and degradation of the product. The test environment contains UV-A/UV-B radiation, salt spray corrosion, condensation humidity, solar/hot humidity cycles, and solar/hot humidity. Refrigeration cycle.
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