International Workshop on Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells (IWTFSSC-4)
Event details
| Date | 19.03.2012 › 23.03.2012 |
| Location |
Hôtel Beaulac in Neuchâtel
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
From March 19-23, 2012, the Fourth International Workshop on Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells (IWTFSSC-4) will be held at Hôtel Beaulac in Neuchâtel, Switzerland (the last workshop was in 2010, in Nagasaki, Japan.
The workshop will consist of invited talks and panel discussions on the present status and future prospects of thin-film silicon technologies. The number of participants will be limited to about 100 and will include the most renowned international experts.
Driven by an increasing demand for PV, a shortage of crystalline silicon and the availability of turn-key production lines, thin-film silicon solar cells have attracted a lot of attention over the past few years. Many companies invested in mass production lines for a-Si and a-Si/μc-Si solar modules, but also faced strong challenges while ramping up their production, as the prices of other products went down. Market pressure is now forcing each technology to improve production costs and further increase module efficiency. The potential of thin-film silicon to contribute significantly to meeting world energy demand remains intact, however, due to the uniqueness of the technology. Only small quantities of abundant and non-toxic materials are used, yielding no risk of supply chain shortage and excellent environmental performance.
Even though there was impressive growth of thin-film silicon manufacturing capacity in recent years and fantastic efforts were made to bring the technology to maturity, many important issues remain. These include high deposition rates or very low cost processes, large area uniformity, reactor cleaning and uptime, optical confinement, laser scribing and increased efficiency. To stay ahead of competing technologies, it will be important to address more fundamental and longer-term issues as well, such as photodegradation of a-Si, very high current cells, triple cells, new structures and materials, and advanced TCOs and superstrates.
It is the aim of this workshop to address these and other topics, and to facilitate discussion among experts in an informal atmosphere. In the final days of the workshop, a joint session with common topics with a-Si/c-Si heterojunction devices will take place.
Complete program on http://iwtfssc4.epfl.ch/
The workshop will consist of invited talks and panel discussions on the present status and future prospects of thin-film silicon technologies. The number of participants will be limited to about 100 and will include the most renowned international experts.
Driven by an increasing demand for PV, a shortage of crystalline silicon and the availability of turn-key production lines, thin-film silicon solar cells have attracted a lot of attention over the past few years. Many companies invested in mass production lines for a-Si and a-Si/μc-Si solar modules, but also faced strong challenges while ramping up their production, as the prices of other products went down. Market pressure is now forcing each technology to improve production costs and further increase module efficiency. The potential of thin-film silicon to contribute significantly to meeting world energy demand remains intact, however, due to the uniqueness of the technology. Only small quantities of abundant and non-toxic materials are used, yielding no risk of supply chain shortage and excellent environmental performance.
Even though there was impressive growth of thin-film silicon manufacturing capacity in recent years and fantastic efforts were made to bring the technology to maturity, many important issues remain. These include high deposition rates or very low cost processes, large area uniformity, reactor cleaning and uptime, optical confinement, laser scribing and increased efficiency. To stay ahead of competing technologies, it will be important to address more fundamental and longer-term issues as well, such as photodegradation of a-Si, very high current cells, triple cells, new structures and materials, and advanced TCOs and superstrates.
It is the aim of this workshop to address these and other topics, and to facilitate discussion among experts in an informal atmosphere. In the final days of the workshop, a joint session with common topics with a-Si/c-Si heterojunction devices will take place.
Complete program on http://iwtfssc4.epfl.ch/
Links
Practical information
- Expert
- Registration required
Contact
- Mary-Claude Gauteaub
Laura Ding
Prof. Christophe Ballif
[email protected]
Tél : 032 7183209