Development of both rigid and flexible semitransparent PV modules for tinted windows is our expertise. Lucintech has demonstrated that magnetron sputtering is particularly well suited for depositing these ultrathin coatings of CdTe. These coatings are thin enough to be intrinsically transparent and yet retain most of the power conversion efficiency of thicker coatings. For example, we have fabricated solar cells with 12% efficiency using only 500 nm of CdTe.
Lucintech has completed a partial scale-up of this process and has developed nearly imperceptible laser-scribed cell interconnects while retaining excellent module efficiencies with transparency suitable for windows. These breakthroughs open up the large potential for power-producing PV windows, skylights, and canopies that are truly“building-integrated” and uniformly transparent. These PV windows are uniformly transparent and do not need selective removal of portions of an opaque coating in order to achieve light transmission as some other PV coatings require. Our PV windows do not have distracting lines in the visual field like some other products.