International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) said Monday that it is joining with Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd. to set up new, low-cost methods to market the next generation of solar energy products. The companies have greed to jointly develop processes, materials, and equipment suitable for the production of Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide or CIGS solar cell modules.
IBM Research has developed new, non-vacuum, solution-based manufacturing processes for CIGS solar cells and is targeting efficiencies around 15% and higher. Current thin-film product efficiencies vary from around 6% to less than 12%.
Merging IBM's technology with the coating technique and high purity chemicals of Tokyo Ohka has the potential to bring the large-scale production of thin-film solar cells to market, IBM noted.
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