Uriel Solar Technology

Thin-film photovoltaic (TFPV) technology is the newest and fastest growing photovoltaic (PV) solar cell technology on the market today. TFPV solar panels overcome the high cost of PV crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar panels, which represent 90% of the current solar energy market, due to the much less expensive assembly costs (because TFPV can be deposited on panel-size, inexpensive glass substrates) and much less expensive active material costs (because the active surface thickness is extremely thin, ~10 to 20 times thinner than the best crystalline silicon panels).

The cost per watt to manufacture the best TFPV panels on the market today is just under $1 while the least expensive c-Si panels are between 50% to 100% more expensive. The one problem that has plagued the state-of-the-art thin-film technology is a lag in performance compared to c-Si. The best production power efficiency of any TFPV panel today is about 10.5% compared with 16%-18% power efficiency for the best c-Si panels. Claims of efficiency increases to 13% for TFPV by 2012 have been made, but unsubstantiated.

Uriel Solar Inc. is positioned to take the next quantum leap in TFPV technology. Uriel Solar will leverage decades of research and development from the infrared sensor community to quickly bring to the market a variation of a new deposition technology suitable for commercial PV products. Uriel Solar will manufacture PV panels based on a patent-pending, novel cadmium telluride (CdTe) architecture that will be priced 50% lower than the lowest cost thin-film product on the market today, while providing much better performance.