Comments on: 1st Order of Corning Solar Photovoltaic Glass on Commercial Scale

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:18:00 +0000

Yikes! Thanks for the catch. Can’t believe I misunderstood what this was all about. Damn, would have been a pretty amazing tech. updating the post!
Thanks to the commenters below, too.

By: Wahlink

Wahlink — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:40:00 +0000

I think another key point is that since their glass is thinner and stronger (wonder if they’re using their gorilla glass for this) they can use less glass which obviously saves money. They also claim that they are higher transmission which I take to mean would allow for more light to enter to PV module for conversion to electricity. Some glass has a higher iron composition for instance and while those look nice and clear (not milky white) they transmit less light.

By: guest

guest — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:25:00 +0000

This.

PV modules use glass, which comes from various suppliers. Corning is now one of those suppliers. Naturally, their glass is better than all the others… according to their PR folks.

That’s about all there is to this announcement.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:02:00 +0000

So, headline is, Corning makes clearer glass for PV modules, 20-30% clearer (so allowing 20-30% more ‘efficiency’ for the PV substrate)…than, err, what, any milky crap glass they want to compare it to? I’m sure there’s real tech progress and industrial scaling up of manufacture here, which is good no matter how small, but, as usual, exactly how much is well hidden by the PR

By: Russell Geisthardt

Russell Geisthardt — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:09:00 +0000

Just to clarify, the glass is not itself photovoltaic. Rather, it is used in photovoltaics. Some thin-film photovoltaics, especially Cadmium-Telluride, are made on top of glass, and the light has to go through the glass to get to the photovoltaic cell. This means that thinner, more transparent glass allows more light to get to the cell, which allows for more electricity out of the cell (ie, higher efficiency).

By: Smith Jim

Smith Jim — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:48:00 +0000

The potential for improvement in efficiency is definitely good news.

By: Smith Jim

Smith Jim — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:40:00 +0000

Zachary,

Please don’t take this as criticism but I think you may have misread something. I know that technology exists for semi transparent PV but I don’t think this is what Corning is talking about. Glass is used in virtually every solar PV module. This does not mean the PV module is transparent in it’s finished form.