Helianthos
It is proposed that this article be deleted because of the following concern:
If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming, or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. You may remove this message if you improve the article or otherwise object to deletion for any reason. Although not required, you are encouraged to explain why you object to the deletion, either in your edit summary or on the talk page. If this template is removed, do not replace it. The article may be deleted if this message remains in place for seven days, i.e., after 12:26, 31 May 2024 (UTC). Find sources: "Helianthos" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR Nominator: Please consider notifying the author/project: {{subst:proposed deletion notify|Helianthos|concern=This pilot plant article has insufficient references to establish [[WP:N|notability]]. After searching, found other uses with the same name, but no comprehensive, in-depth coverage. Article was created by a new user on 22 April 2006 (their only contribution to Wikipedia).}} ~~~~ |
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
On 8 September 2011 Nuon announced the pilot plant would be closed down since no investor for production expansion could be found. However, on 7 May 2012 Nuon announced that Helianthos has been sold to HyET Solar.
Process technology[edit]
The process uses a temporary substrate on which flexible thin-film solar cells are deposited. The use of the temporary substrate allows relatively high processing temperatures while using (semi-)continuous roll-to-roll (or reel-to-reel) production processes and cost-efficient, abundantly available materials.
The active layers of such solar cells comprise a transparent conductive oxide layer (TCO), an active absorbent layer (e.g. thin-film silicon), and a back contact layer (e.g. a reflective metal layer).
Process sequence[edit]
The key steps in the process sequence are:
- Deposit the TCO layer on a temporary metal substrate foil using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at about 500 °C (932 °F) .
- Deposit the active absorber layer (e.g. thin film silicon layer) using plasma enhanced CVD
- Deposit the reflective back contact by means of physical vapor deposition
- Pattern for monolithic interconnection
- Laminate to a permanent carrier foil
- Remove the temporary substrate foil by means of wet etching
- Confectioning, contact application and encapsulation
Applications[edit]
Using this process, flexible photovoltaic (PV) laminates are fabricated that can substantially reduce the per-kilowatt hour costs of solar electricity. Further, the resulting photovoltaic laminates are lightweight, rugged and offer certain freedoms of design.
PV laminates have the potential to be used for a range of applications, including:
- Large area roofing and other large area applications to generate electricity
- Rural electrification
- Industrial applications
- Portable applications.