Thin-film solar panels

Thin-film solar panels

From CleanTechnica:

Thin film solar cells made from cadmium telluride have a significant advantage over conventional solar cells made from crystalline silicon. They need far less raw material — up to 100 times less — which makes them cheaper to manufacture than silicon cells. They also absorb sunlight at nearly the ideal wavelength. As a result, electricity generated by thin film solar cells is the least expensive available today.

Thin film solar has one significant disadvantage, however. It is less efficient at converting sunlight into electricity than silicon wafers. Researchers at Colorado State University Next Generation Photovoltaics Center, working in collaboration with scientists at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, have discovered that adding selenium to the mix can boost thin film solar’s efficiency to around 22% — as good as some of the best silicon wafer solar cells.

Okay, this is only in the laboratory phase right now. We all know there is no guarantee breakthroughs in the lab will ever translate into commercially viable products. But this research, funded in part by National Science Foundation, is precisely the kind of thing that keeps driving down the price of solar energy and making it harder for fossil fuels to compete.