Swiss team claims new world record for solar cell efficiency
Scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have developed thin film solar cells on flexible polymer foils with a new record efficiency of 20.4%.
The team, led by Ayodhya Tiwari, beat its previous record of 18.7% achieved in May 2011. The researchers believe the breakthrough will be a key step towards making CIGS based thin film solar cells more practicable for future widespread use.
"We have now – finally – managed to close the efficiency gap to solar cells based on polycrystalline silicon wafers or CIGS thin film cells on glass," Tiwari noted.
The next step is to scale up the technology to make it suitable for large scale, roll to roll manufacturing. Empa has teamed up with Swiss start up company Flisom to help bring this about.
