High efficiency flexible CIGS solar cells on polyimide film developed at Empa with a novel process

Currently, solar energy is one of the most prominent energy source among all the renewables in the global. However, due to the high initial costs of the solar cells with lower efficiency is the keys. Now a days, as compared with the solar crystalline solar cells, the thin film technology is coming into the picture due to lower of its costs and without jeopardizing the cell's lifetime as well as any hazard to the environment (source: Chaar et al.). Scientists from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology ( at Empa), have developed the thin film solar cells on flexible polymer foils with a historical record of efficiency 20.4% for converting solar energy into electrical energy. Empa reported that cells are generally based on CIGS (copper indium gallium (di) selenide) materials which provides the cost effective for generate the solar electricity. Now, this technology is looking forward for applications in industries. There are so many researches are going on the solar energy technologies for minimizing to its costs as well as improving the solar cell efficiencies. The team at Empa, leaded by Ayodhya N. Tiwari has achieved this new record for getting the efficiency of 20.4%. Previously, this laboratory has been boosted so many records on this technology like 12.8% in 1999, 14.4% in 2005, 17.6% in 2010 and 18.6% in 2011.
Source: Empa, PV Tech