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Rock Star of Photovoltaics is CIGS says IDTechEx
A smart pitch black, CIGS has a superb route to improvement with research efficiencies now mixing it with the best of heavy, thick, brittle silicon-in-glass. That is three times the efficiency of flexible organic photovoltaics OPV. Indeed, lightweight polymer CIGS substrates (Flisom with EMPA of Switzerland and now further improvements by Korea Institute of Energy Research) are gaining favour. Semi-transparent CIGS has been demonstrated. Problematic indium-tin-oxide transparent conductive electrode with its brittleness and price hikes is usually unnecessary. Although there is a scrap of cadmium in today's versions that does not appear in the next generation. We shall see more CIGS as feedstock and reels but, to be fair, work on photovoltaic paint is currently focused on three other options.
CIGS will not take over the world, but it contributes to solar beating wind because of faster cost reduction and no moving parts. It is not winning the battle for solar vehicle bodywork: single crystal silicon has grabbed most of that, leaving CIGS some retrofit business, but CIGS may fight back with similar efficiency and lighter weight in due course. CIGS certainly powers the trend to go off-grid with microgrids as analysed in the IDTechEx report, "Distributed Generation: Off-Grid Zero-Emission kW-MW 2020-2040". Little wonder that there are expansion plans for multiple gigawatts of extra CIGS production. Chinese construction materials and engineering company CNBM, electricity equipment supplier Shanghai Electric and subsidiaries of mining and generation giant China Energy Investment Corporation (formerly Shenhua Group) have just made strategic investments in CIGS technology and production equipment.
For more information on this report, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/ElectronicsReshaped or for the full portfolio of research available from IDTechEx please visit www.IDTechEx.com/Research.
IDTechEx guides your strategic business decisions through its Research, Consultancy and Event products, helping you profit from emerging technologies. For more information on IDTechEx Research and Consultancy, contact research@IDTechEx.com or visit www.IDTechEx.com.
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