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The Broad Prospects Of Solar Technology-a Large-scale Practical Thin-film Photovoltaic Cell Project

A key issue in the field of renewable energy is when large-scale solar photovoltaic cell technology can compete with or be equivalent to the price of electricity derived from fossil fuels. In fact, the cost of large-scale thin-film photovoltaic cell technology is already lower than that of nuclear power, but it is currently more expensive than burning coal to obtain electricity.

Many producers of thin-film solar cells have successfully reduced costs. The current leader in this field is the No. 1 Solar Energy Company in Tempe, Arizona. First Solar produced 1 gigawatt of electricity through cadmium telluride batteries in 2009. In other words, 1 gigawatt is equivalent to the total production of 250,000 large-scale household thin-film solar photovoltaic conversion systems.

First Solar Energy achieved an average energy conversion efficiency of 10.9% in 2009, and their products have become the most efficient products among thin-film products. The company also solved the problem of cadmium, a heavy metal used in production, by designing a recycling system to prevent cadmium, a harmful substance, from being discharged with waste.

In the past few years, First Solar has greatly reduced their production costs. Their cost is only half of that of silicon crystal materials or other thin-film solar products currently on the market. Their cost-reduction measures include shortening production time and installation time of large-scale equipment. Compared with other companies in the same industry, First Solar’s large-scale equipment installation costs have been reduced by 10% to 15%, but their output is about 10% higher than that of the company that produces silicon crystals (at the same design efficiency) under). In the next five years, First Solar will strive to increase production efficiency by another 15% and further reduce its production costs. If the company can successfully achieve the above goals, then obtaining electricity through large-scale thin-film solar installations will be as cheap as obtaining electricity from fossil fuels.