Commercialization of Multijunction a-Si Modules

Solarex has just completed building a plant in James City County, Virginia that has the capacity to produce 10 MW per year of multijunction amorphous silicon PV modules. The plant will start commerical production of 8.6 ft2 tandem modules in early 1997. The tandem device structure consists of two stacked p-i-n junctions, a front junction containing amorphous silicon and a back junction containingan amorphous silicon germanium alloy. All amorphous silicon alloys are deposited using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and the large-area monolithic modules are interconnected using computerized laser scribing coupled with a machine vision system. The principle products will be monolithic modules (26' x 48') with nominal stabilized power ratings of 56, 50, and 43 peak watts. Allmodules will be fabricated using a glass-EVA-glass encapsulation to ensure long-term reliability. These products are expected to be widely used in both remote and grid-tied applications.