Eeyore said:
AFAIK these panels are still at the 'lab' stage.
If they perform as advertised it will indeed be a major breakthrough.
Since they're using Germanium I'd be concerned over their ability to take
much in the way of high temperatures though.
Graham
Germanium?
I see a bunch of materials quoted but no Germanium.
Perhaps you meant the Gallium?
Quoting:
"As it uses no silicon, costs are dramatically lower. It makes use of normal
window glass as a substrate, with - and this is where it gets complex -
molybdenum applied as back contact, followed by the core component, being a
compound semiconductor comprising five elements - copper, indium, gallium,
selenium and sulphide, replacing the silicon - with cadmium sulphide as a
buffer layer, followed by an intrinsic zinc oxide layer and, finally, a
conductive zinc-oxide layer."
They mentioned a Production Plant (verified) of 25MW. That's certainly small
compared to a commercial generation plant but I don't know if it's still in
the "Lab" stage. If you can believe what they say.
Robert