XsunX Inc of Aliso Viejo, CA, USA, which is developing hybrid copper indium gallium (di)selenide thin-film (CIGS) photovoltaic (TFPV) cell technologies and ‘CIGSolar’ manufacturing processes, says it recently completed assembly of its baseline CIGSolar TFPV solar cell evaporation system, and is now fast-tracking start-up, testing and calibration of CIGSolar technology for customer demonstrations.
“Customers have been contacting us to schedule system demonstrations,” says CEO Tom Djokovich. “We are working with these customers to address their questions and schedule on-site meetings while preparing our CIGSolar evaporator for deposition demonstrations,” he adds. “Many of the potential customers are interested in the smaller footprint and cost-competiveness of our scalable system to service regional demand and employment goals.”
Worldwide demand for solar products continues to grow, with new installations on track to reach about 30GW in 2012 (equivalent to adding about twenty seven 1.1GW nuclear reactors), says XsunX. But, while solar power production continues to grow in impact and importance, the solar industry itself has been experiencing limitations to furthering cost reductions, the firm adds. Also, the rapid pricing erosions over the last two years have left manufacturers with either negative operating margins or they have been forced out of business. The industry’s need, and the focus of CIGSolar TFPV cell evaporation technology, is to provide manufacturers a path to further cost reductions and an opportunity to restore operating margins, XsunX continues.
The firm’s technology, of which samples were certified delivering 15.91% average solar energy conversion efficiency in testing conducted by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), uses multi-small-area thermal co-evaporation for rapid deposition of final-sized cells to better control the complex management of the CIGS layer deposition process.
XsunX says that its method, unlike other CIGS manufacturing technologies, begins and ends using individual thin stainless-steel substrates matched in size to silicon cells for use as an alternative to silicon cells for existing module assembly lines. In addition to providing a smaller and more precise deposition environment, the CIGSolar process also helps to avoid performance losses experienced when cells are either cut from rolls of manufactured CIGS material or mismatched electrically in monolithic assemblies, the firm concludes.
XsunX is offering licenses for the use of CIGSolar process technology, and plans to generate revenue through licensing fees and manufacturing royalties.
