Thin Film Solar Cells: Another Leap Forward

Thin Film Solar Cells: Another Leap Forward

One of the arguments used by opponents of solar power is that solar energy technology is far too costly to be an effective alternative to the petrofuels that make such awesome profits for Exxon-Mobil, BP and Koch Industries, even though these resources exact a heavy cost on the rest of us and the planet.

Until recently, this was unfortunately a valid argument. In strictly monetary terms electricity generated from solar technology cost up to five times more than that produced from toxic coal and oil. However, some dramatic technological leaps are closing that gap quickly.

One of these is thin film solar technology.

A Short History

People are surprised to learn that the science behind photovoltaic film has been around for over 170 years since 1839, in fact. However, it took more than forty years before an actual photovoltaic cell was built, and this early effort had an efficiency rating of only 1%. Modern solar cells were first manufactured in the 1950s, but they were cumbersome, costly and highly inefficient; in essence, it cost more to create a solar cell than the value of energy that could be produced.

Traditionally, solar cells have consisted of layers of materials and alloys of silicon with other materials such as copper and phosphorus. The latter functions as a semiconductor, a material that allows electrons to move in a single direction. Part of the problem with this production method has been the expense, particularly of the specific form of silicon that is most frequently used as a semiconductor, as well as the costs of creating the proper alloys. The other problem is that until recently solar cells have been able to use only a small part of the light spectrum to produce energy. Think of the colors of the rainbow; most solar cells until now could only use the bright orange and yellow part of this spectrum.

Photovoltaic thin film is changing all of this.

You've Seen Them Before

Photovoltaic film has been used for a long time to power small electronic devices, namely calculators, which have been around since the early 1970s. The process used to manufacture these thin film solar cells consists of depositing several thin layers of a semiconductor material onto another surface, such as glass or even plastic. Because the semiconductors used are extremely efficient, a very thin layer is all that is needed.

The most exciting development is that alternatives to silicon are becoming available, which will bring down the cost of thin film solar technology substantially. This in turn will eventually result in the Holy Grail of alternative energies (as well as BP's worst nightmare) grid parity, or the point at which solar-generated electricity is no more expensive than that produced by fossil fuels.

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