Oerlikon Solar presented its second generation ThinFab, an end-to-end production line for manufacturing sustainable solar modules at low cost and high quality, at the recently concluded World Future Energy Summit 2012 (WFES) in Abu Dhabi.

The new design reduces capital expenditure by 23 per cent to just $1/Wp including engineering support and performance guarantees. The production line enables customers to produce high-quality thin film silicon modules for costs of around $ 0.5/Wp, a record in the solar industry.

Oerlikon Solar also announced a new record thin film silicon cell today. At 12.5 per cent, the efficiency of this lab cell is 1.7 percentage points higher than the large scale production modules of the second generation ThinFab (an increase of 16 per cent) and clearly demonstrates the potential of Oerlikon Solar’s thin film silicon technology.

The second generation ThinFab, announced on December 19, 2011, is available in the market as of today.

In addition to lower Capex requirements and the lowest module production costs, the upgraded ThinFab provides customers with a guaranteed average module efficiency of 10.8 per cent (154 Wp) – an increase of 8 per cent – and a 17 per cent higher output capacity compared with the 1st generation.

The new record cell with 12.5 per cent efficiency was developed in cooperation with leading specialty glass manufacturer Corning. Oerlikon Solar set the previous record in September 2010 when it developed a champion cell delivering 11.9 per cent efficiency.

This significant efficiency increase in such a short period of time demonstrates the future potential of Oerlikon Solar’s Micromorph thin film silicon technology and Oerlikon Solar’s leading thin film silicon research and development capabilities. – TradeArabia News Service