News Article
Materials for thin film and organic photovoltaics will reach $3.8 billion by 2015
According to a new study by NanoMarkets, materials for use in thin film and organic photovoltaics (PV) will reach $3.8 billion by 2015.
According to NanoMarkets’ analysis the thin film and organic photovoltaic market is becoming a source of opportunity for both traditional electronic chemicals suppliers and innovative materials firms. In addition, innovations at the material level will have a profound impact on the future of PV as a whole.
Thin-film PV is no longer a niche consumer of electronic materials. By 2015 amorphous silicon PV will use more than $900 million in silane gas and other silicon based materials. A few years ago producers of crystalline silicon found that conventional photovoltaics was a major new business opportunity. Thin film PV is bringing the same kind of opportunity to the leading suppliers of electronic chemicals
CIGS promises all the advantages of thin film PV, but with conversion efficiencies almost as high as conventional PV. However, whether or not CIGS can keep this promise will depend on innovative materials firms. For example, the CIGS industry is looking for better formulations of selenium that avoid the volatility problems experienced in high temperature manufacturing processes. CIGS cell construction also makes the choice of materials for the top contacts highly demanding. NanoMarkets believes that such problems will be overcome in the next few years and that by 2015, the CIGS PV sector will consume a total of $1.1 billion in materials.
In the near future, thin film materials will provide entirely new directions for PV. Silicon inks will soon be available that will combine the manufacturability advantages of organic PV, but with much higher conversion efficiencies. Slivers of crystalline silicon have been developed that combine the high efficiency of crystalline silicon with the flexibility and ease of fabrication of thin film; and this technology is already being used in a pilot plant. Further off lies the commercialisation of inorganic nanocrystals designed to overcome the one electron per solar photon limitation in solar energy conversion. CdSe, CdS and CdTe nanocrystals have all been employed in this way in the lab and hint at a thin film PV of the future with energy conversion ratios well into the double digits.
Thin-film PV is no longer a niche consumer of electronic materials. By 2015 amorphous silicon PV will use more than $900 million in silane gas and other silicon based materials. A few years ago producers of crystalline silicon found that conventional photovoltaics was a major new business opportunity. Thin film PV is bringing the same kind of opportunity to the leading suppliers of electronic chemicals
CIGS promises all the advantages of thin film PV, but with conversion efficiencies almost as high as conventional PV. However, whether or not CIGS can keep this promise will depend on innovative materials firms. For example, the CIGS industry is looking for better formulations of selenium that avoid the volatility problems experienced in high temperature manufacturing processes. CIGS cell construction also makes the choice of materials for the top contacts highly demanding. NanoMarkets believes that such problems will be overcome in the next few years and that by 2015, the CIGS PV sector will consume a total of $1.1 billion in materials.
In the near future, thin film materials will provide entirely new directions for PV. Silicon inks will soon be available that will combine the manufacturability advantages of organic PV, but with much higher conversion efficiencies. Slivers of crystalline silicon have been developed that combine the high efficiency of crystalline silicon with the flexibility and ease of fabrication of thin film; and this technology is already being used in a pilot plant. Further off lies the commercialisation of inorganic nanocrystals designed to overcome the one electron per solar photon limitation in solar energy conversion. CdSe, CdS and CdTe nanocrystals have all been employed in this way in the lab and hint at a thin film PV of the future with energy conversion ratios well into the double digits.
