Silicon vs. CIGS in solar
Monday, October 2nd, 2006CNET’s News.com has this informative piece that discusses the difference between silicon and CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) in the production of solar PV cells. Most solar cells today are based on silicon, but a number of startups entering the market — NanoSolar, HelioVolt, and Miasole, to name a few — believe CIGS-based thin film cells are cheaper to make, easier to install and will catch up to silicon in terms of efficiency. Silicon has an edge right now because you can leverage existing research and a trillion-dollar infrastructure built around it, but there’s also a shortage of solar-grade silicon so this is limiting growth. Is CIGS the answer? Or will silicon continue to reign supreme?
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.