shawn colvin:CIGS: Will Technology Be Revealed Before Funding Dries Up

In 2008, copper-indium-gallium-selenide [CIGS] based materials accounted for less than 3% of global photovoltaic module production.

Yet, the potential high efficiency and the potential low cost of the CIGS material system has spurred enormous capital investment in companies, both private and public, to develop large-scale CIGS solar manufacturing. Here's a list of the top five recipients of venture capital amongst CIGS players.

Firm VC Received Investors
Solyndra $600M+ CMEA, Redpoint, Argonaut, Virgin, Rockport, USVP
Nanosolar $500M MDV, Riverstone, Grazia Equity, Lone Pine, Skoll
MiaSolé $300M KPCB, Vantage Point, Firelake, Garage Technology
SoloPower $235M+ Convexa Capital, Crosslink Capital, Firsthand
SulfurCell $165M+ Masdar, Intel, Climate Change Capital

That’s $1.8 billion dollars right there and the figure easily exceeds $2.3 billion when one counts the remaining CIGS players. More than 35 firms around the globe are working on CIGS or CIGS variants.

But CIGS has proven to be an extremely difficult materials system - its manufacture and behavior has not yet been mastered, as evidenced by the very few CIGS firms in true commercial production. Almost every CIGS firm has experienced schedule delays, personnel shake-ups, or massive re-working of processes and technological approaches.

A few firms such as Wuerth Solar and Global Solar are actually shipping commercial CIGS product. Others such as Solyndra and Nanosolar boast of winning large purchase orders but true large-scale production at promised costs and efficiencies is not yet proven. And the remaining CIGS aspirants like MiaSolé and Heliovolt have gone quiet after their own personnel, financial, and technical spasms.

One of the gaping structural gaps in a CIGS builder's business plan is the lack of standard manufacturing tools - Applied Materials (AMAT) does not have a turn-key CIGS factory. This means that every CIGS player has to be an equipment builder as well as a PV module and panel vendor. That's technically risky and a highly inefficient use of VC investor capital.

Into this new VC climate of capital efficiency, a quiet CIGS innovator, Applied Quantum Technology [AQT] has raised $4.75 million from undisclosed sources and in less than a year, produced CIGS materials at an NREL-validated efficiency of greater than 10%. It has taken most of the other players several years to reach that efficiency milestone.

So what is the eight-person AQT doing that the other the other generously-funded and highly-hyped players have missed?

• They are focusing on building solar cells, not manufacturing equipment
• They are using pre-existing high-volume manufacturing equipment
• They are starting with CIS2 (Copper Indium Sulfide), a relatively less complex materials system before they tackle CIGS
• They look to ramp up in 15-20MW modular increments, not biting off 50MW-100MW chunks like other CIGS players

AQT uses a dry reactive sputtering process and is targeting a $.65 per watt capital cost and $1.06 per watt cell cost.

Among the firm's management are the brothers Bartholomeusz, Brian and Michael, who seem to get along pretty well for brothers, more Orville and Wilbur than Groucho and Chico. They have manufacturing and materials experience from their days at Moser Baer and Heraeus and are looking to close a $20 million Round B to advance their firm to pilot production.

Can this David challenge the numerous Goliaths in the world of CIGS?

　　CIGS太阳能电池在薄膜类太阳能电池中转换效率较高，两公司期待此次的太阳能电池可成为继结晶硅太阳能电池之后的新型电池。使CIGS太阳能电池成膜的底板此前多采用玻璃制造，目前正在面向具备柔软性的太阳能电池，开发可在金属底板上成膜的技术。据悉，此前研究的金属底板多以不易对CIGS太阳能电池造成负面影响的钛箔及钼箔为基础，不过这类底板存在大面积材料供应及成本课题。为了解决这些课题，两公司还考虑利用廉价的不锈箔，但太阳能电池高温成膜时，金属底板的成分会向CIGS层扩散，因此存在严重影响发电效率的问题。

　　东洋钢板此次开发出了以成本可低于不锈箔的低碳钢为基础的极薄金属底板。低碳钢的价格不足原来钛箔的1/10，是不锈箔的一半左右，聚酰亚胺薄膜的1/4左右。

　　关于影响CIGS太阳能电池效率的元素扩散问题，两公司通过形成独立的表面处理膜来进行控制。该表面处理膜能够在大气中成膜，可支持低成本工艺。

　　此次产品的转换效率在CIGS太阳能电池中达到了全球最高水平，产综研此前一直在推进以金属底板为基础的柔性太阳能电池的开发。另外，还在致力于大面积模块的开发。产综研采用东洋钢板开发的带表面处理膜的低成本金属底板试制CIGS太阳能电池时，小面积单元的转换效率达到了16.7％（本征转换效率，单元发电面积约为0.5cm2）。该转换效率“是采用低成本底板时的极高效率”（两公司）。