Samsung Now the New CIGS Solar Module Efficiency Record Holder

CIGS efficiency records continue to fall.

by Eric Wesoff
December 20, 2013

Samsung, which has been relatively quiet in solar power technology of late, now shares the world's record for CIGS solar module conversion efficiency.

Using a two-step CIGS approach akin to the Solar Frontier process, Korea's Samsung has hit an efficiency mark of 15.7 percent on a large-area (1.44 square meter) substrate -- officially certified as 15.7 percent by TÜV Rheinland, a PV testing company. That ties Samsung with TSMC’s 15.7 percent CIGS world record module. Solar Frontier has hit 14.7 percent efficiency on a 1.23-square-meter substrate.

Samsung plans to build a 200-megawatt production line in 2014, expanding to more than 1 gigawatt in 2015. 

A company official said, "As the CIGS [modules] have strengths in a high-temperature environment, [demand] will gradually increase in the so-called Sun Belt, including the Middle East." The official continued, “Samsung SDI is expected to decide when to start production while mulling over when the building-centered stable market will be formed while lowering the production cost.”

Hopefully, the engineering and investment community has learned something from the $4 billion to $5 billion invested in the CIGS solar material over the last decade. We've watched a number of copper-indium-gallium-diselenide solar companies raise funding and collapse with varying degrees of drama -- including Solyndra, Nanosolar and AQT. 

Earlier this week, China's Hanergy reported new performance records for Solibro and MiaSolé's thin-film processes, signaling its intent to actually apply CIGS technology. Hanergy hit 19.6 percent conversion efficiency in the lab on a small area sample, as certified by the Fraunhofer Institute. The 19.6 percent figure comes on the heels of an 18.7 percent efficiency announcement in October.

Solibro uses a batch co-evaporation process, while MiaSolé uses a roll-to-roll sputtering process -- two very different processes requiring very different equipment sets.

The CIGS record holder, ZSW, hit a Fraunhofer-confirmed 20.8 percent efficiency for a CIGS thin-film solar cell in October. The record-setting cell was built using the co-evaporation process. Currently, the only CIGS vendor of commercial consequence is Solar Frontier, which just shipped 86 megawatts of its CIS thin-film panels to engineering and EPC firm Chiyoda for use in a number of projects in Japan. Like SunPower and a few other module firms, Solar Frontier is prospering in a market bolstered by Japan's generous feed-in tariff. Solar Frontier is the leader, by far, in terms of cumulative shipments of CIGS solar panels.

Solar Frontier sells 13-percent-efficient modules and has more than 1 gigawatt of module capacity. Stion, TSMC, Siva and now Samsung soldier on in this materials system, which continues to tantalize with its potential performance and price.

Here's a partial list of CIGS solar players: