The Department of Energy has allocated US$20 million to solicit participation in the thin-film cadmium telluride module organized by NREL to advance the Leadership Alliance.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Ministry of Energy are soliciting leaders from companies and research institutions to join the CdTe Thin Film Photovoltaic Development Alliance and submit them in the next few days.
The mission of the CdTe accelerator program announced in March this year is to form a consortium to guide the United States to a highly competitive position in the CdTe field.
Specifically, the plan seeks to increase battery efficiency to more than 24% by 2025 and reduce the price of sustainable components to less than US$0.20 per watt. By 2030, the goal of the alliance is to exceed 26% efficiency and cost less than US$0.15/watt.
CdTe is known for its high light absorption rate and relatively low manufacturing cost, making it second only to silicon-based panels in deployment. NREL said that if CdTe research can achieve higher cell efficiency and even lower module manufacturing costs, the United States can occupy a larger share of the global solar market.
The main activities of the alliance will include formulating an annual updated CdTe roadmap, solving domestic supply chain issues, and carrying out core research projects to achieve efficiency goals. They will also seek leadership to advise NREL to initiate other projects through external R&D projects to achieve the roadmap goals.
NREL stated that it is expected to conduct award selection in September 2021, and the initial funding for the first 36 months of the program will be US$9 million.
NREL is celebrating its nearly 30-year partnership with First Solar. The company recently announced plans to invest US$680 million in a thin-film manufacturing plant in Ohio with an annual capacity of 3.3 gigawatts. The implied capital expenditure for manufacturing these modules will be US$0.20/watt, which can well achieve the alliance’s pricing goals.
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