Solar Modules: Low Cost Manufacturing

Solar power is one of the fastestgrowing renewable energy markets. Over the last twenty years solar photovoltaics has gone from being a field of scientific study to one of commercial interest. Decreasing cost per watt of solar power has been a key market driver. Materials and production costs have slowed USbased growth. nexTC Corporation addresses these issues by creating lowcost materials and processes required for solar module operation. Current TCO glass products do not meet device manufacturer needs and require costly work arounds to meet performance specifications. Glass companies manufacture FTOcoated glass via chemical vapor deposition CVD. CVD produces conductive films with high surface roughness and high optical haze, both of which are incompatible with production of thin film solar modules, especially CdTebased devices. Highsurface roughness leads to propagation of defects throughout the solar stack, while high optical haze limits transparency. nexTC provides to manufacturers a TCObilayer stack that improves performance and lowers costs. Our materials are easy to deposit and process, providing solar module manufacturers the opportunity to eliminate dependence on any specific glass provider, and enables glass companies to offer a more competitive product for the broader TCO coated glass market. In the Phase 1 SBIR we demonstrated that our materials and methods to produce ultrasmooth, uniform diffusion barrier films modulate alkali metal diffusion and increase optical transmission by 5%. When combined with our proprietary solution processed TCO films, we observe optical and electrical properties that meet industry standards. nexTC’s integration of optimized chemical solutions, slotdie coating, and rapid annealing represents a breakthrough manufacturing platform to improve the efficiency of solar modules and lower manufacturing costs. The focus of this SBIR Phase II is to scale precursor synthesis, deposition area, and create second generation products based on abundant materials. nexTC will engage customers to build prototype solar modules to demonstrate efficacy on large area substrates. The platform technology developed herein has commercial applications outside of the identified beachhead market of thin film solar, including smartwindows, passivation coatings, and large area electronics.