Swedish CIGS thin-film solar cell manufacturer Midsummer has announced that a four-terminal perovskite CIGS tandem solar cell, developed in collaboration with researchers from Prof. Yang Yang’s laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has an impressive efficiency of 24, has reached 9%.
The cell consists of a top layer of wide bandgap perovskite cells and a bottom layer of Midsummer’s CIGS cell. The project demonstrates the feasibility of creating a tandem cell based on a pioneering manufacturing process developed at Midsummer using Midsummer’s flagship CIGS cell manufacturing machine, DUO. The production system can manufacture high-quality CIGS solar cells measuring 156 mm x 156 mm on a flexible stainless steel substrate. This form factor is ideally suited for the subsequent processing of perovskite films on the company’s current CIGS product suite.
“Perovskite-CIGS tandem cells have great future potential and the design of Midsummer solar panels offers by far the best conditions for building a commercial product for this type of solar panel, for example because it contains a diode between each solar cell,” said Sven Lindström, CEO of Midsummer.
Pioneer Materials, Inc is another project participant providing composite sputtering targets used in the new Midsummer processing for CIGS on stainless steel. Leon Chiu, president of the company, said: “The integration of Midsummer’s production-proven CIGS processing with custom perovskite from Yang’s Lab shows a clear path toward expanding the reach of BIPV by improving efficiency and reduce costs.”
The group continues their collaboration on perovskite-CIGS tandem cell research. The goal is to develop a two-terminal perovskite-CIGS cell that will be suitable for mass production and further increase the competitiveness of the tandem cell.
Midsummer is committed to CIGS cell research and production. The company’s CIGS products are widely recognized in the industry. In recent months, the company has partnered with several reputable roofing companies to distribute its products; and signed hundreds of megawatts of CIGS deals.
Prof. Yang Yang’s laboratory works on solution-oriented thin-film electronic devices, including PV cells, digital memory units, light-emitting diodes and thin-film transistors, that seek the highest performance at extremely low costs.
