High-throughput manufacturing of thin-film CdTe photovoltaic modules

The main obstacle to the wide spread use of photovoltaics as a major source of renewable energy has been cost. The key to lowering the cost of photovoltaic generated energy to the levels of conventional sources of energy lays in the development of low cost, high throughput manufacturing processes. Solar Cells, Inc. (SCI) believes this can be achieved for CdTe based modules by integrating its PV fabrication processes with a modem glass plant. That is, sand in, finished module out. It is also necessary to have a stable end product in order to gain wide acceptance. SCI has been working at producing large-area CdS/CdTe photovoltaic (PV) modules and the processes developed at SCI can be scaled to achieve high production levels at cost-effective rates.