Eco Factor: 1366 Technologies develops two new technologies to increase the efficiency of solar cells without increasing their cost.
1366 Technologies, manufacturers of silicon photovoltaics, have announced two technologies for multi-crystalline silicon solar cells, which can easily be integrated into existing manufacturing lines to lower the cost of manufacturing of solar cells and increase their efficiency.
The company claimed that their new technologies have all the potential to save manufacturers $50 billion over the next five years and help the industry deliver solar at the cost of coal. The newly developed technologies address the cell texture and the front-side cell metallization.
The first technology aimed to create a distinctive honeycomb structure introduces cross-textured surfaces to the cell that allow them capture more sunlight, thereby increasing the overall efficiency of the solar cell by 1%. The second technology is based on the company’s finest metallization lines – just 30 microns. While the industry standard thick fingers typically shade 9% of the surface of the cell, the new metallization line shades only 2% of the cell delivering 75% of the efficiency gains of back-contact.
The company is now planning to disclose the details of the Self-Aligned Cell (SAC) architecture, which has been developed to convert 18% of sunlight to electricity with polysilicon. Engineers at the company are forecasting that they will be able to achieve 19% efficiency in the next nine months, without making any significant change in the existing cost of manufacturing.
