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General Electric (GE) has announced plans to build a new solar panel factory in Aurora, Colorado, not far from its recently acquired thin-film solar technology company, PrimeStar Solar. The plant will feature cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaics (PV), originally developed by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Because CdTe is cheaper and simpler to manufacture than other PV technologies—including copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film—but tests at lower efficiencies, companies have been vying to break its efficiency records. CdTe modules now hover around 13 percent efficiency, at last surpassing CIGS.
GE intends to begin production of its CdTe modules in 2012 and have modules commercially available in 2013.
Copyright 2011 by BuildingGreen Inc.
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