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| Fast thin-film solar technology for power buildings HelioVolt Corporation, a next-generation solar energy technology company, announced today that it has closed $8 million in Series A venture funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) of Menlo Park, California, one of the industry's premier venture capital firms. HelioVolt has invented the fastest and most efficient way to manufacture thin film photovoltaic platforms surfaced with Copper Indium Selenide (CIS), the most reliable and best-performing thin film material for generating electricity from sunlight. HelioVolt's FASST(TM) technology can apply CIS coatings to traditional construction materials including steel, architectural glass and roofing, in custom shapes, sizes and tints. The attractive and durable CIS coating looks much like slate, and can be incorporated into exterior cladding for buildings including metal and polymer roofing, skylights, and curtain walls, creating a new class of PV construction materials that could not be made with silicon. FASST(TM) will enable architects and contractors to use a building's "skin" to self-power it, a practice called "building-integrated photovoltaics" (BIPV) or creating smart "power buildings." HelioVolt's manufacturing advancement, FASST(TM) (field-assisted simultaneous synthesis and transfer), reduces by as much as two orders of magnitude the amount of time needed to create high quality CIS photovoltaic solar-conversion devices, thus reducing the heat and energy used. This huge reduction in the thermal budget required in manufacturing transforms the net energy payback. HelioVolt has been issued eight patents for FASST(TM) so far. FASST(TM) is a standardized, high-volume, high-throughput manufacturing method that is similar to a combination of two processes used in conventional semiconductor manufacturing: rapid thermal processing and anodic bonding. First, a base chemical is applied to a substrate such as metal or glass. Another chemical layer is applied with a reusable tool similar to a printing plate. The two plates are brought together in the presence of an electrical field, and a rapid and controlled chemical reaction takes place that produces the high-quality CIS photovoltaic layer on the substrate. Previous thin-film approaches based on amorphous silicon suffer from low efficiency and degrade over time in the sun. DSSC (dye-sensitized solar cells) are at an early stage of development, still have low efficiencies, and their durability is unproven. These polymer-based thin-films are not inherently stable, chemically, and may degrade in a relatively short period of time, making them best suited for short-term applications such as consumer electronics. CIS is an inherently chemically stable and uniquely nanostructured material that delivers high levels of energy conversion. Via FASST(TM), CIS can be cost-effectively produced on a very large scale, and offers useful lifetimes comparable to crystalline silicon. CIS thin-film platforms require only 1% as much photovoltaic material as silicon to convert the same amount of sunlight into electricity. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Construction News :: home page |