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Twin Creeks’ Ultra-Thin Solar Cells Aim to Reduce Costs

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As you will have noticed, the problem with all these renewable technologies is that they cost a lot… and I mean a lot! So efforts are being made in this direction to reduce the price of solar modules as far as they can go. This is also what Twin Creeks Technologies has been doing lately and it hasn’t been in vain: the wafer production system that surged as a result has modules thinner by up to 90%.

By eliminating some of that silicon and other substrate materials, but leaving the surface layer untouched, you get the starting point of the process. By embedding a layer of hydrogen ions on monocrystalline wafers, Twin Creeks got a 20-micron layer, which in turn expands when heated and splits the top surface into an ultra thin wafer.

In the end, it’s this particular wafer that suffers the conversion into solar modules and conductors. The technology is called Proton Induced Exfoliation (PIE) and the final product goes by the name of Hyperion 3.

Amazingly, these monocrystalline wafers are as thick as the 10th part of conventional ones, but that’s not the only good part: they are flexible as well, making their packaging a great deal easier. With pliable, efficient, inexpensive solar modules, what more do you want?

[via Ecofriend]

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