OVERVIEW

According to leading market research companies, the total worldwide photovoltaic market is projected to grow from 6GW in 2009 to 14GW in 2012, more than doubling the growth in next 3 years. To date, the majority of deployments have taken place in Europe and selected Asian markets where government subsidies are incentivizing installations. The severe economic downturn is forcing many countries to scale back solar subsidies. For the solar market to achieve mass deployments, solar technology must be highly efficient, low-cost to manufacture, and afford an overall lower total system cost to drive beneath grid parity costs for power generation, independent of subsidies.

Present-day crystalline silicon solar materials, while high in energy conversion efficiency, involve silicon production processes that are complex, wasteful, energy-intensive, and not optimized for large-area applications like solar panels. In contrast, many of the emerging thin-film approaches, while theoretically inexpensive to manufacture in large areas, are significantly lower in efficiency potential, but often involve toxic or scarce materials, and continue to show instabilities in manufacturing processes that translate to commercial-scaling difficulties.

Ampulse’s technology blends the best efficiency properties of crystalline silicon with the attractive manufacturing costs and application flexibilities of emerging thin-film photovoltaic technologies. Using a patented breakthrough manufacturing technique to deposit crystalline silicon on a flexible substrate, the material of choice for PV applications, Ampulse’s next-generation c-Si thin-film technology has scaleable efficiency potential, low manufacturing costs, and an easy-to-install form factor. This delivers a “no-compromise” approach to the present-day challenges of solar and creates a path to mass deployment by supporting power generation cost, unsubsidized, below grid parity.