A thin-film solar cell is a second generation solar cell that is made by depositing one or more thin layers, or thin film (TF) of photovoltaic material on a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are commercially used in several technologies, including cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and amorphous thin-film silicon (a-Si, TF-Si).
What is thin film solar panel?
Thin-film technologies reduce the amount of active material in a cell. Most sandwich active material between two pane.s of glass. Since silicon solar panels only use one pane of glass, thin film panels are approximately twice as heavy as crystalline silicon panels, although they have a smaller ecological impact (determined from life cycle analysis). The majority of film panels have 2-3 percentage points lower conversion efficiencies than crystalline silicon. Cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) are three thin-film technologies often used for outdoor applications.
How does the converting efficiency?
Cells made from these materials tend to be less efficient than bulk silicon, but are less expensive to produce. But how does the efficiency of thin-film solar cells compare to traditional cells? The theoretical maximum for silicon-wafer cells is about 50 percent efficiency, meaning that half of the energy striking the cell gets converted into electricity. In reality, silicon-wafer cells achieve, on average, 15 to 25 percent efficiency. Thin-film solar cells are finally becoming competitive. The efficiency of CdTe solar cells has reached just more than 15 percent, and CIGS solar cells have reached 20 percent efficiency.
What's the advantages of it ?
1: These new materials are potentially going to be much faster and cost-efficient to produce than the traditional bulk silicon (crystalline silicon, wafer silicon) solar cells. High speed printing (roll-to-roll) of polymer solar materials may potentially produce the same amount of material in one hour as the amount of traditional crystalline silicon cells produced in one year. Their thinner structure needs less material, allowing much cheaper panels to be produced.
2: The most common and popular type of thin film solar panel is the flexible laminate type. That’s because they’re the most versatile. Their thin film allows them to be applied to almost all surfaces and to take up a lot less space than a traditional panel. They’ve even been used as a type of roofing material. Unlike rigid panel types, they don’t stand out, blending in better with the roof itself. They can actually be used instead of steel or shingles for roofing, creating an entire roof that generates power from sunlight.
3: One benefit of thin film solar panels that other types can’t offer is that they don’t suffer a decrease in output when temperatures go up. Some may even have a slight increase in their outputs. That’s impressive, since areas where sunlight is readily available are also usually hot. Because of this, thin film solar panels often have an actual output that’s very close to the one they’re rated for. This can make planning a solar power system much easier using this kind of panel.
Antaisolar offer thin film solar panel clamp , which can be used for kinds of specification thin film solar panel or unframed solar panel. Appropriate clamping force does not damage solar panel and can prevent the solar panel moving effectively. Overall design and factory-owned made allow for competitive price .
Antaisolar thin film solar clamps have been approved and deemed compatible for use with Trina Solar DUOMAX modules .
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