IBM Reveals Thin Film Solar Cells

IBM has published a paper in Advanced Materials detailing a breakthrough in solar research that they say has produced thin film solar cells with efficiencies of 9.6 percent, or 40 percent higher than the previous effort with comparable materials. What makes this even more exciting is that the new cell was built on what is known as ‘earth abundant' elements meaning cheaper solar cells that could go into production immediately. Despite the breakthrough the company has made it clear it is not intending to enter the industry as a manufacturer and instead will licence the technology.

The new cell was built using copper, tin, sulphur and/or selenium according to the paper. These are all abundant elements. Previous thin film efforts have seen greater efficiencies but are made with more expensive compound materials such as copper indium, gallium selenide or cadmium telluride. These materials are costly in comparison and improvements in efficiency are slow going meaning a wider usage is less likely.

IBM Research Manager of Photovoltaic Science and Technology, David Mitzi stated the company deliberately chose to pursue the cheaper materials and the resulting efficiencies is due to the quality of the light absorbing layers the research team were able to achieve. The company has said it expects the results to be improved upon fairly quickly.