Midsummer, a supplier of production lines for manufacturing of lightweight flexible CIGS solar cells, has announced that its Asian client now manufactures flexible solar modules with conversion efficiency of 14 per cent.
Midsummer previously announced that they have sold their compact DUO solar cell manufacturing system to an Asian client. The system is in production and it produces flexible solar modules. The flexible solar module is made of cells from the client’s factory in Asia.
Midsummer’s client has passed 14 per cent in conversion efficiency (corresponding to 15.4 percent aperture area efficiency). The modules tested at the independent research institute Chemitox Inc. in Yamanashi, Japan, were made in the client’s production line in normal production conditions and with standard process settings with a CIGS layer less than 1 micron in thickness.
Inexpensive lightweight flexible solar modules
The Midsummer DUO is an deposition system for CIGS solar cell manufacturing. It is designed for operational stability and material utilization.
With the production system from Midsummer, the solar cells are manufactured individually and then stringed together into modules just like crystalline solar cells. This way, flexible modules can be made in any size and shape.
A dry, all-vacuum process has less stringent requirements for clean rooms. Avoiding cadmium in the manufacturing process is desirable for the sake of the production staff and also makes it easy to commence low cost manufacturing of CIGS solar cells.