Washington State University researchers have received a $1.1 million U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative cooperative award to improve the performance and lower the cost of solar materials for the multibillion dollar industry.
Working in collaboration with researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and industry partner Nious Technologies, Inc., WSU researchers will improve the performance of cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar material. They will improve its feedstock, or the raw crystal needed to make solar cells, with the goal of reducing costs and making it more competitive with popular silicon-based technology.
“A robust CdTe feedstock manufacturing technology and high quality CdTe materials will be available to the solar industry that could disrupt the current thin-film solar energy supply chain,” said Kelvin Lynn, Regents professor in WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Department of Physics and Astronomy. “The overall outcome will positively impact American solar energy manufacturing sector by boosting technology competiveness.”