PrimeStar to commercialize NREL high effeciency solar cells

February 28, 2007
Company to bring CdTe cells out of the labs and into the market.

PrimeStar Solar announced today that it has signed an agreement to commercialize high efficiency photovoltaic (PV) technology developed by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The $870,000 research and development agreement is to transition NREL's leading cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology to commercial module production.

NREL's technology been used to produce the world record cadmium telluride photovoltaic cell efficiency of 16.5% by NREL's Professor Xuanzhi Wu and his colleagues.

Under today's agreement, Professor Wu is to be the principal investigator for NREL, while Dr. Joe Beach and Dr. Fred Seymour have been appointed principal investigators for PrimeStar Solar.

"NREL's mission is to work closely with industries as they begin to make products from next-generation technologies," NREL Associate Director Dr. Stan Bull said. "This is an example of a partnership designed to help move technology out of the laboratory and into the market."

In addition to the technology transfer, the agreement provides PrimeStar Solar with access to NREL's photovoltaic scientists and equipment.

PrimeStar Solar has leased a 16,000 square foot facility near NREL in Golden, Colorado to develop a pilot plant. Initial CdTe processing equipment will be delivered in March from PrimeStar's assembly facility in Michigan.

PrimeStar Solar has secured seed capital of about $6M from individual investors and a global investment bank to help fund a portion of the initial scale up work.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development.

More

Coverage brought to you by

Cleantech developments making news in the past 24 hours

View the last week of cleantech developments here | Subscribe to full feed Feed

Comments

Primestar

Submitted on July 11th, 2008 by Tellurium (not verified)

Help me to understand this - how does a company such as PrimeStar expect to make a profit by using 1) a toxic metal - Cadmium - carcinogen that is now being banned by the EU as a metallic component in computers. 2) Tellurium - the 9th rarest element on earth?

Now, PrimeStar wants me to cover my house with Cadmium Teulluride?

PrimeStar's 16,000sf "facility" on I-70 can easily be converted into "Buffalo Bill's Carpet Warehouse" when they go under.

I am sorry, but PrimeStar and other solar companies based on Cadmium Telluride are simply hype - and people do not yet know the truth about Cadmium Telluride. Even NREL (National Renewable Energy Labs) which helped to develop the technology has concerns about the use of CdTe.

This "CleanTech" isn't so clean.

CdTe Solar Cells

Submitted on August 28th, 2008 by pete (not verified)

To reply to your comments,which are very reasonable... we are actually talking about Cadmium Telluride, which has a melting point of nearly 1100 degrees Centigrade. So, cadmium is bound up with the tellurium in a very stable compound; just like H2O doesn't behave like hydrogen or oxygen, CdTe doesn't behave like cadmiun or tellurium. Secondly, CdTe solar cells have very little CdTe, only a few micrometers deposited onto some other substrate, like glass. By comparison, silicon solar cells are hundreds of microns thick; the point is that very little tellurium is actually used. So the situation isn't as bleak as you might initally think!

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Become a cleantech industry insider - sign up for our free newsletter