Products
MWOE Solar's products are thin-film silicon based solar cells and PV modules. These products utilize various thin film Si based alloys, including amorphous silicon(a-Si), amorphous silicon germanium (a-SiGe), and nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si). Products with two different device structures are produced. These include:
MWOE Solar's academic partner, Dr. Xunming Deng's Thin Film Silicon Photovoltaic Laboratory at the University of Toledo, maintains the world record for efficiency of single-junction a-Si based solar cells. This is an important world record since it is a record for the most inexpensive type of silicon-based solar cells. Dr. Deng and his associates (students, postdoctoral researchers, and visiting scholars) at UT utilize a low-germanium content a-SiGe material and a specially designed p-type semiconductor layer for its solar cells; achieving single-junction solar cells with ~13% initial efficiency and 10.4% stabilized efficiency. Figure 4 illustrates the structure of this a-SiGe solar cell.
MWOE/UT also fabricates triple-junction solar cells with a-Si, a-SiGe, a-SiGe having bandgaps of 1.8 eV, 1.6eV and 1.4 eV as the semiconductor absorber layers. The solar cells were measured at UT and at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Below: photos showing single and triple junction cells structures, and the current-voltage performance of UT's triple-junction solar cell measured at NREL, showing 11.8% total-area efficiency, corresponding to a 12.5% active-area efficiency.
MWOE's principal PV products are flexible and lightweight. These modules are made with flexible lamination, deposited on thin stainless steel substrates. These modules can be rolled during stowage and transport. Different product sizes, at rated peak power output of 200W, 100W, 20W, and 7.5W, will be offered.
Details of MWOE's PV products will be unveiled at the Solar Power 2007 exhibit.