PXP (Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture), a joint venture company developing flexible thin-film solar cells, announced on January 5 that it has completed a pilot line to verify mass production technology. series for thin-film solar cells and plans to start production in January next year. 2024. It is reported that it has been active since 2017.
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Mass production technology pilot line
(source: PXP)
The company is researching and developing a "bendable solar cell" that uses a parallel (multi-layer) structure of perovskite and chalcopyrite thin-film solar cells. The newly completed pilot line will first mass produce chalcopyrite thin-film solar cells that serve as the bottom solar cells (power-generating components). So far, it has been shown to work when wrapped around an 8cm diameter cylinder.
The pilot line will use a new production method based on sputtering, which is excellent for mass production, on ultra-thin metal foil substrates. By using a thin metal foil substrate with extremely low heat capacity, heating and cooling can be done quickly, reducing the time required for the annealing process. In addition to reducing the number of steps, a complex process of alternating between normal pressure and vacuum was eliminated and a process allowing one-time production was adopted. Production speed is expected to be five times faster than conventional methods.
In addition, production equipment has become more compact, allowing to significantly reduce the space and scale of mass production factory buildings. Because the manufacturing process does not use special material gases or hazardous materials such as chemical solutions containing cadmium or organic solvents, the need for safety equipment and process equipment can be reduced. emissions. These efforts are expected to reduce capital investment by less than one-third compared to conventional methods.
Production capacity has not been disclosed, but the company says there will be enough capacity to distribute samples to potential users. Going forward, as a first step, we plan to launch and make adjustments to be able to create templates with a conversion efficiency of around 18%. While production costs were not disclosed, the company explained that it could be significantly cheaper than commercially available flexible solar panels, which are currently quite expensive.
