Solar Frontier has achieved a 17.8% aperture area efficiency on a 30×30 cm CIS-based solar thin-film photovoltaic (PV) submodule in joint research with Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
The efficiency was recorded at Atsugi Research Center (ARC), Solar Frontier's dedicated research laboratory in Japan.
"I would like to emphasize as we have before that this efficiency is on a fully integrated submodule, which our laboratory produces with processes very similar to what is in place in our factories at commercial production scale," says Satoru Kuriyagawa, Chief Technology Officer at Solar Frontier.
"Even higher efficiencies can be achieved by using a device with a very small surface area, but the reason we prefer to focus on the submodule level is that the path to commercial production is more practical. This achievement confirms that we are on track to achieve the higher module efficiencies we are targeting in our commercial production efficiency roadmap."
Solar Frontier's CIS solar thin-film modules are manufactured at its Kunitomi plant, which started full commercial operations last year.
