Crystalsol Is Getting Ready To Revolutionize Solar Energy
By Hendrik Morkel
Solar energy is a favourite of many governments and environmentalists: free and easy to harness energy from the sun - what's not to like about that? Well, for one the production of conventional photovoltaic panels isn't without environmental impacts, and it also uses rare metals which are increasingly difficult to source. Crystalsol, established in 2008 as a spin-off of the Tallinn University of Technology, is developing a product which gets rid of these negatives.
The company's key innovation is the use of tiny semiconductor crystals made of copper, zinc, tin and sulfo-selenide, CZTS for short, where each crystal works as a tiny solar cell. This technology is the combination of decades of research for the Russian military and Philips semiconductor know-how dating back to the 1960s. The result: a new type of flexible photovoltaic module with a significant cost advantage compared to all currently known photovoltaic technologies. The modules are produced roll-to-roll - think paper manufacturing - which eliminates the scale-up issues that thin film producers usually face. Once production is up and running, which should be by mid 2011, Crystalsol forecasts production costs below €0.50 per watt, which should give them the lead in low cost PV modules.
The team behind Crystalsol consists of Wolfgang Ressler, Thomas Badegruber, Prof. Dieter Meissner and seven employees, as well as a dedicated team of ten scientists at the Technical University of Tallinn. Investors are Conor Venture Partners Oy from Finland and Energy Future Invest AS from Norway. Additionally, the company is supported by several other agencies. So far the company has received €3m in funding, and is seeking a further €7 to complete its product development.
I asked Wolfgang Ressler what makes them different to their competitors. Wolfgang told me that there's no direct competition, as currently no other company is developing a similar technology to them, but if you take a broader view there are plenty of players, ranging from start-ups like Heliovolt and Nanosolar to established corporations like Q-Cells and First Solar. What makes Crystalsol's technology different is that it is based on CZTS and thus there is no need for rare metals such as tellurium and indium. The production of the semiconductor is separated from the module production and their product opens up completely new ways to integrate solar cells into buildings, roofs and facades. Add in a cost reduction of 70 to 80% compared to the current industry average and you have a very attractive product which could revolutionize the photovoltaic market.
Established in 2008, the company started out during one of the worst recessions since the 1930s, and I asked Wolfgang, who's one of the three managing directors of the company, how they coped during these tough times. He was very optimistic and proud that the company was able to complete its seed financing round successfully. He views the current situation as beneficial for Crystalsol, as it means an increase in available talent and lower prices for equipment and raw materials.
Given their unique technology, optimism and their outstanding management team, I believe Crystalsol has what it takes to succeed. Creating a product which does away with a harmful production process while driving down production costs is one thing, but to also aim to minimize the environmental impact of the product over its entire life-cycle shows that the company is thinking more deeply. To target the building integration industry for its first market is, in my opinion, a smart strategy, as I believe huge buildings with glass facades could benefit immensely from the ability to produce energy while minimizing the incoming sunshine. If you are curious about Crystalsol, come and meet them at the Cleantech Venture Day 2009. It takes place on November 26th in Lahti's Sibelius Hall and tickets are still available here.
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Nice article. What I'd like to know is what the cost per kw/h is. That's the usual metric to evaluate energy. Coal is at 3c per kw/h, nuclear 10c per kw/h and so on.
The costs of energy are also a bit complex. Transport costs account for half of the cost of electricity for example. So if you can generate solar power locally it works out much more efficient in that respect and therefore the actual power generation doesn't need to be as efficient.
Of course for solar to hit it really big we need the storage solutions to make the same advances but all the signs are that there will be some exciting development there in the next few years.
Thank you Jon. As you said, its difficult to calculate the costs of energy. That said, I will try. With solar power in general the biggest costs are the solar panels themselves. Current calculations put solar energy at 38c per kwh, so it is a lot higher as coal and nuclear, but with declining prices for solar panels these costs go down. In turn costs for coal, gas and other carbon fuels might rise when governments start to charge energy providers for their emissions/ they need to buy the right for their emissions (under the European Emissions trading scheme, for example).
I am convinced that in the next couple of years solar power, together with energy storage solutions, will become a big part of the energy mix in countries which have plenty of sun. Especially African countries could benefit immensely from going straight to solar energy to satisfy their energy needs.
Jon, thanks for your comment. The final energy cost (kWh) depends on both module production cost and overall balance of system cost (BOS – cost to install a photovoltaic modules). To get to grid parity – same or lower energy cost as with conventional energy sources – a module production cost below one US-Dollar is required.
crystalsol’s technology leads to cost reduction for the module production of 70-80% compared to current industry average. Considering the most aggressive projected price decline until 2013 this implies a future cost advantage of 20-30% achievable already at low scale production. When entering the market crystalsol will produce at 0.5 EUR/Wp. In the midterm crystalsol’s low-cost roll-to-roll technology has the potential to reach production cost below 0.3 EUR/Wp.
crystalsol’s low production cost in combination with reduced system cost will make solar energy competitive in the future.
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