More CIS for Solar Performance

Companies are gearing up for the series production of modules based on copper, indium and selenium.

Up to now, CIS thin-film modules have played virtually no role in photovoltaics. However, now, the solar industry wants to boost the great potential of the technology, investing in better and higher-volume production. German manufacturers are leading the way.

The Swabian machinery builders, Centrotherm are currently looking excitedly towards Asia: The company is starting up a plant for CIGS thin-film modules with 30 megawatt (MW) capacity for the Taiwanese company, Sunshine. The special feature here: It is the first fully turnkey production line for modules based on copper, indium and selenium anywhere in the world. Centrotherm is building it, undertaking the “ramp-up” and guaranteeing performance parameters such as yield, output and module efficiency. “CIS manufacturers have not yet managed to get very high capacities onto the market. We can change that,” says Centrotherm’s thin-film division manager Hartmut Gross. The industry is showing major interest in the new turnkey plant: According to Gross, several contracts have already been concluded. Centrotherm’s next project will be to install a 50 MW factory for Hamburg-based Illies Renewables in Magdeburg.

It is not just Centrotherm that is currently giving copper PV a powerful surge. Throughout the world, CIS producers are preparing for mass production. Consequently, the race is on to catch up with the thin-film competition, modules made of amorphous silicon and cadmium telluride (CdTe), whose development has been booming for a while now. German companies are setting the pace: Nine of the 15 major CIS producers come from Germany, according to a recent analysis by PV consultants Accelios Solar, or use German expertise and manufacturing technology. In terms of the efficiency degree, it is also a German company which is out in front, Q-Cells subsidiary Solibro: Its panel achieves 12.3 percent efficiency, more than any other series-produced CIS module.