First Solar Hits Record 21.5% Conversion Efficiency

First Solar crushes the previous CdTe cell efficiency record.

Eric Wesoff February 09, 2015

Eric Wesoff

Editor-at-Large
Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.

Last year at this time, First Solar crushed the conversion efficiency mark for cadmium telluride with a world-record 20.4 percent.

That figure has been easily eclipsed a year later with a new record of 21.5 percent. And with that mark, First Solar now expects to exceed its 22 percent in 2015 target.

According to the firm, "The achievement places First Solar ahead of its established research cell roadmap, and validates CdTe’s continuing competitive advantage over traditional crystalline silicon technology."

The research cell was constructed at the thin-film module builder and vertically integrated EPC's Perrysburg, Ohio manufacturing factory and R&D center. The company claims that the record-breaking cell was built "using processes and materials suitable for commercial-scale manufacturing." The record has been documented by NREL.

Raffi Garabedian, First Solar’s CTO, gave credit to GE Global Research as one of the contributors to progress in efficiency. "The true value of improved cell efficiency comes from the translation of the science into commercially viable product with improved power output and energy density," said Garabedian in a release.

First Solar has suggested that it can equal efficiencies of average c-Si modules by the end of 2015. The company believes it can hit ~19.5 percent efficiency in 2017. The firm also sees credible long-term paths to 23-percent-efficient and 25-percent-efficient CdTe cells.

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