Photovoltaic technologies covered include CIGS, CdTe DSSC, a-Si and organic photovoltaics. Learn how these technologies, each at a different stage of development and adoption, are driven forward by both government and leading companies in the field.
Materials and devices are covered, as well as manufacturing techniques, focussing on various high speed printing technologies that can be utilised.
Silicon photocells are seen in many places but the technology is limited. Crystalline silicon will never give tightly rollable devices let alone transparent ones or even low cost power generation on flexible substrates.
Fortunately there are many new alternatives. Proprietary nano-particle silicon printing processes are developed by companies such as Innovalight and Kovio and they promise many of the photovoltaic features that conventional silicon can never achieve. Also, new materials and deposition techniques promise high performance, lightweight flexible solar cells.
Amorphous silicon technologies also offer a thin film alternative at a lower cost but unfortunately lower efficiency.
Technologies beyond silicon
First Solar’s technology, based on CdTe cells, is the first major success on non-silicon platforms. However, a lot of work on the next generation of PV is directed towards deposition onto low cost flexible substrates and ultimately common packaging materials.
Competing technologies include:
* CIGS
* DSSC
* Organic PV
* Q-Si
Several companies, universities and research institutes are hard at work in different stages of these technologies with large scale plants built across the globe.
Printing Techniques: Adoption and commercialisation
Along with other manufacturing techniques, printing (or printing-like) technologies are gradually being adopted (Nanosolar, G24 Innovations in the PV sector; Power Paper, Solicore and Thin battery technology in the batteries sector), as they can be considered to be some of the fastest, least expensive and highest volume manufacturing techniques.
With printed electronics becoming more prevalent, there is an increasing need for power to supply them; printing is amenable to a large number of different types of devices with the possibility of integration (e.g. to provide onboard power etc.)
This report provides a comprehensive list of each of the thin film photovoltaic and battery technologies. Compiled and analysed by Dr Harry Zervos, technology analyst with IDTechEx, company profiles are given along with 10 year forecasts for the growth of the market share of these technologies. Dr Bruce Kahn, consultant and academic, gives a thorough analysis of the science and technology behind thin film photovoltaics and batteries, as well as a comparison of different high-speed printing techniques.
This report is vital for those wishing to understand the companies, technologies, challenges and forecasts of photovoltaics beyond crystalline silicon.
Table of Contents
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2. INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE
2.1. Thin Film Photovoltaic Forecasts
2.2. Battery Forecasts
3. BATTERIES
3.1. Introduction
3.2. History
3.3. Structure
3.4. Key Products in Printed Batteries Industry
3.5. Principles and Operation
3.6. Supercapacitors supplement or rival batteries?
3.7. Thin Film Batteries – key companies
3.7.1. Power Paper
3.7.2. Blue Spark Technologies Inc.
3.7.3. Enfucell
3.7.4. Cymbet Corporation
3.7.5. Solicore
3.7.6. Infinite Power Solutions (IPS)
3.7.7. Excellatron
3.7.8. Nanotecture
4. PHOTOVOLTAICS
4.1. Introduction
4.2. History
5. COMPANY PROFILES BY TECHNOLOGY
5.1. Principles and operations
5.2. Amorphous/nanoparticle Si
5.2.1. Introduction-Brief Description of technology
5.3. Amorphous /nanoparticle Si – Key Companies
5.3.1. Sharp
5.3.2. United Solar Ovonic
5.3.3. Mitsubishi Heavy industries
5.3.4. Kaneka
5.3.5. Q-cells (SONTOR and VHF-Technologies SA)
5.3.6. Fuji Electric Systems Co., Ltd.
5.3.7. ersol Solar Energy AG
5.3.8. Innovalight
5.4. CdTe
5.4.1. Introduction-Brief Description of technology
5.5. CdTe Key Companies
5.5.1. First Solar
5.5.2. Calyxo
5.5.3. Abound Solar
5.5.4. PrimeStar Solar
5.6. CIGS – CIS
5.6.1. Introduction – Brief Description of technology
5.7. CIGS – Key Companies
5.7.1. Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc.
5.7.2. Avancis
5.7.3. DayStar Technologies
5.7.4. Global Solar Energy
5.7.5. HelioVolt
5.7.6. Honda Soltec Co., Ltd.
5.7.7. IBM
5.7.8. Johanna Solar Technology
5.7.9. Miasolé
5.7.10. Nanosolar
5.7.11. Odersun
5.7.12. Showa Shell Sekiyu
5.7.13. Solibro
5.7.14. Solyndra
5.7.15. Sulfurcell
5.7.16. Würth Solar
5.8. DSSC
5.8.1. Introduction-Brief Description of technology
5.9. DSSC – Key Companies
5.9.1. G24 Innovations
5.9.2. Dyesol
5.10. Organic Photovoltaics
5.10.1. Introduction – Brief Description of technology
5.11. Organic Photovoltaics – Key Companies
5.11.1. Konarka
5.11.2. Plextronics
5.11.3. Solarmer
5.11.4. Heliatek
5.12. Research Institutes/Universities involved with thin film photovoltaic technologies
5.12.1. AIST – National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
5.12.2. Arizona State University
5.12.3. Colorado State University
5.12.4. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
5.12.5. Florida Solar Energy Centre
5.12.6. Fraunhofer ISE
5.12.7. Helsinki University of technology (TKK)
5.12.8. IMEC
5.12.9. Imperial College London
5.12.10. Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
5.12.11. KAIST – Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
5.12.12. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
5.12.13. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
5.12.14. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
5.12.15. University of Delaware – Institute of Energy Conversion (IEC)
6. APPLICATIONS
6.1. Applications of printed batteries
6.2. Batteries
6.2.1. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
6.2.2. Smart Cards
6.2.3. Iontophoretic Devices
6.2.4. Other Devices
6.3. Photovoltaics
6.3.1. Building integrated solar electric power
6.3.2. Solar Chargers
6.3.3. Military applications
6.3.4. Other applications
7. FUTURE TRENDS AND FORECASTS FOR PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES
APPENDIX 1: PRINCIPLES AND OPERATION OF DSSCS AND ORGANIC SOLAR CELLS
APPENDIX 2: MATERIALS
APPENDIX 3: PRINTING/PATTERNING TECHNIQUES
APPENDIX 4: IDTECHEX PUBLICATIONS AND CONSULTANCY
TABLES
1.1. Thin film technologies Market Share and Module Costs
1.2. Types of printed/thin film photovoltaics beyond crystalline silicon compared, with examples of suppliers
1.3. Market size for thin film photovoltaic technologies beyond silicon technologies % of the market that is printed and flexible
1.4. Potential division of technologies in the thin film sector – flexible
1.5. Potential division of technologies in the thin film sector – printed
1.6. Market size for thin film batteries % of the market that is printed and flexible
2.1. Market size for thin film photovoltaic technologies beyond silicon technologies % of the market that is printed and flexible
2.2. Market size for thin film batteries % of the market that is printed and flexible
3.1. Important milestones in battery history
3.2. Printed battery product and specification comparison
3.3. Printed battery materials comparison.
3.4. The half cell and overall chemical reactions that occur in a Zn/MnO2 battery
3.5. Discharge rate, current, and load.
3.6. Parameter ranking for different battery chemistries
3.7. Battery characteristics
4.1. Comparison of the power conversion technologies of different types of solar cell technologies
4.2. Important milestones in the development of photovoltaic cells
6.1. Applications of printed batteries by vendor
6.2. Technical differences between Active and Passive RFID technologies
6.3. Summary of functional capabilities of Active and Passive RFID technologies
6.4. Some of the manufacturers that provide printed batteries for smart card applications
7.1. Market size for thin film photovoltaic technologies beyond silicon technologies % of the market that is printed and flexible ($ billion)
7.2. Market size for thin film batteries % of the market that is printed and flexible
FIGURES
1.1. World market for Photovoltaics in 2008
1.2. Number of organisations developing printed and potentially printed electronics worldwide
2.1. Market size for CIGS and percentage flexible, percentage printed
2.2. Market size for a-Si and percentage flexible, percentage printed
3.1. Internal structure of Power Paper Battery.
3.2. Diagram of the operation of a battery
3.3. Discharge characteristics of a Power Paper STD-3 printed battery
3.4. Enfucell SoftBattery™
3.5. The Cymbet EnerChip™
3.6. Flexion ™
3.7. LiTESTAR™.
3.8. Thin-film solid-state batteries by Excellatron
4.1. Average potential electricity production with photovoltaics
4.2. Worldwide PV Shipments 1988-2004
4.3. Progress of confirmed research-scale photovoltaic device efficiencies, under AM 1.5 simulated solar illumination, for a variety of technologies
4.4. Progress in power conversion efficiency for a-Si, polymer, and small molecule photovoltaic cells
4.5. Comparison of the efficiency (in arbitrary units, since no spectral mismatch correction was performed) of "printed like" (doctor bladed) vs. spin-coated organic solar cells
5.1. Typical a-Si p-i-n design
5.2. a-Si hydrogenation
5.3. United Solar Ovonics thin film amorphous silicon cell configuration
5.4. Kaneka semi-translucent PV module
5.5. FES F-WAVE
5.6. Innovalight Cell
5.7. CdTe thin film solar cell
5.8. Schematic representation of a CIGS thin film solar cell
5.9. Ascent Solar’s Flexible Products
5.10. Honda Soltec’s manufacturing facility
5.11. Model and design of Johanna Solar’s production facility in Brandenburg
5.12. Parts of Nanosolar’s module manufacturing process
5.13. The POGO designer bag produced by Berlin manufacturer Bagjack
5.14. Würth Solar’s production plant, CISfab in Schwäbisch Hall
5.15. Dyesol’s Dye Solar Cells interconnected and integrated into modules (tiles).
5.16. Konarka’s Power Plastic®
5.17. The Tsukuba Center Solar Power Plant
5.18. Transparent dye solar module manufactured at Fraunhofer ISE with a screen printing procedure using glass frit technology.
5.19. Schematic layer structure of a pentacene-C60 tandem organic solar cell
6.1. Patents containing the terms RFID and Battery
6.2. Active RFID patents
6.3. Schematic diagram of PowerCosmetics Micro-electronic patch
6.4. Estee Lauder Perfectionist Power Correcting Patch
6.5. Anti-wrinkle demonstration
6.6. Audio paper capable of recording and playing back audio
6.7. Hasbro Thin-Tronix™ Poster Phone and Poster Radio
6.8. PowerFilm AA Charger
6.9. Two wire photovoltaic fiber concept
7.1. Market size for CIGS and percentage flexible, percentage printed
7.2. Market size for a-Si and percentage flexible, percentage printed
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