New technique speeds cell production
Netherlands, Delft — TU Delft has demonstrated that the speed at which relatively inefficient but inexpensive amorphous solar cells are produced can be increased by a factor of ten. This means more solar panels can be produced per day from a given capital investment. Whilst the basic production technique used was developed by Eindhoven University of Technology; Michael Wank’s project, which was subsidised by Agentschap NL, used a special method to overcome the disadvantages of heat introduced in the original Eindhoven project. The speed of production was eventually increased by a factor of ten, to one nanometre per second, while maintaining a good energy yield (for amorphous silicon) of around 7 per cent.
