Messer GmbH, one of the few remaining family-run industrial gas giants, is investing efforts into thin-film solar cells that are both environmentally friendly and versatile. In a recent corporate statement the firm highlighted the importance of industrial gas to this burgeoning arc of environmentally friendly power.
Compared with conventional solar cells, consisting of silicon crystals, the eco-alternative only requires a fraction of raw material and is purported as much more flexible to use. Budapest’s, GreenSolar Equipment Manufacturing Ltd., develops and produces what are called tandem thin-film cells; their silicon layers are only a few micrometers thick because they are formed from gaseous precursors. But as Messer emphasised, other industrial gases are also important.
However, without a doubt, the most important ingredient is silicon, nevertheless as Messer explained, its use is associated with problematic CO2 emissions. “The production of pure silicon requires large amounts of energy and is associated with considerable CO2 emissions. The crystalline form also places considerable restrictions on the possibilities of processing and forming. That is why there is growing interest in types of silicon that are suitable for photovoltaics but require the use of much less material while at the same time being easier to process.”
Wafer-thin silicon
According to Messer, these requirements as best met by amorphous and microcrystalline silicon, the firm explained, “Since they are only required in extremely fine layers of just a few thousandths of a millimetre, silicon consumption per square metre of solar cell can be reduced by up to 99.9%. GreenSolar uses the so-called tandem process, whereby layers of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon are formed on top of each other. The two materials have different properties; in combination they form a cost-effective solar cell with a relatively high degree of efficiency.”
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