A prominent manufacturer is the us company first solar based in tempe arizona that produces cdte panels with an efficiency of about 14 percent at a reported cost of 0 59 per watt.
Cadmium telluride solar panels cost.
Additionally cadmium telluride panels can be manufactured at low costs as cadmium is abundant and generated as a byproduct of important industrial materials like zinc.
A research team from washington state university claims to have developed a new manufacturing process to produce cadmium telluride cdte pv panels that is 45 cheaper than current industry standards.
Cadmium telluride is a direct band gap material with high absorption for the full spectrum.
Direct manufacturing cost for cdte pv modules reached 0 57 per watt in 2013 and capital cost per new watt of capacity is near 0 9 per watt including land and buildings.
Those who live near the 230 megawatt antelope valley solar ranch one want to know whether the 3 7 million cadmium telluride cdte thin film solar panels first solar will install in their desert.
Success of cadmium telluride pv has been due to the low cost achievable with the cdte technology made possible by combining adequate efficiency with lower module area costs.
A main concern with cdte panels is pollution.
Production the most common cdte solar cells consist of a simple p n heterojunction structure containing a p doped cdte layer matched with an n doped cadmium sulfide cds layer which acts as a window layer.
The question of what happens when indictments of current energy sources are also levied towards alternative sources is an important one.
Cadmium by itself is one of the most toxic materials known and cadmium telluride also has some toxic properties.
The temperature coefficient of cdte thin film solar module is only about 0 21 k make it much more heat resistant than crystalline solar modules.