Helianthos
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
On 8 September 2011 Nuon announced the pilot plant would be closed down since no investor for production expansion could be found. However, on 7 May 2012 Nuon announced that Helianthos has been sold to HyET Solar.
Process technology[edit]
The process uses a temporary substrate on which flexible thin-film solar cells are deposited. The use of the temporary substrate allows relatively high processing temperatures while using (semi-)continuous roll-to-roll (or reel-to-reel) production processes and cost-efficient, abundantly available materials.
The active layers of such solar cells comprise a transparent conductive oxide layer (TCO), an active absorbent layer (e.g. thin-film silicon), and a back contact layer (e.g. a reflective metal layer).
Process sequence[edit]
The key steps in the process sequence are:
- Deposit the TCO layer on a temporary metal substrate foil using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at about 500 °C (932 °F) .
- Deposit the active absorber layer (e.g. thin film silicon layer) using plasma enhanced CVD
- Deposit the reflective back contact by means of physical vapor deposition
- Pattern for monolithic interconnection
- Laminate to a permanent carrier foil
- Remove the temporary substrate foil by means of wet etching
- Confectioning, contact application and encapsulation
Applications[edit]
Using this process, flexible photovoltaic (PV) laminates are fabricated that can substantially reduce the per-kilowatt hour costs of solar electricity. Further, the resulting photovoltaic laminates are lightweight, rugged and offer certain freedoms of design.
PV laminates have the potential to be used for a range of applications, including:
- Large area roofing and other large area applications to generate electricity
- Rural electrification
- Industrial applications
- Portable applications.