1st Order of Corning Solar Photovoltaic Glass on Commercial Scale

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Update February 9: Yikes! Apparently, I misread/misunderstood this news when I first read/wrote about it. This is not a transparent PV material—it’s just about the glass used on a PV panel. My apologies. Aside from that, though, the claims below by Corning are still pretty impressive. So, I hope they’re true. I’ve updated a couple parts of the post below to make things more accurate/clear.

Corning photovoltaic glass? I have to admit, I had to dig through our archives to see if we had ever covered this. And, nope, it’s a new one. Corning Incorporated, a “world leader in specialty glass and ceramics,” has created solar photovoltaic glass that it claims is lighter, more efficient, and stronger than traditional thin-film solar module glass. On February 1, it announced the first commercial order of its photovoltaic (PV) glass substrates.

“This milestone order follows three years of development work and extensive customer engagement, resulting in an engineered glass that enables higher efficiency and lighter weight thin-film photovoltaic modules,” the company notes.

In total, Corning says that its new solar technology can “increase current thin-film module efficiency by 20% to 30%.” That’s big!

“Corning’s photovoltaic glass substrates are also 50% stronger with less than half the thickness of the glass commonly used today in thin-film PV modules,” the company notes.

“The glass has high transmission, allowing more sunlight into the semiconductor layer. Corning’s substrates are also high-temperature tolerant. Because the glass can withstand higher temperature deposition, more uniform semiconductor films may be applied, which increases overall conversion efficiency.”

Well, the company has gotten a commercial order now. Where it goes from there, we’ll have to see.

“This is just the beginning,” John Duke, business director for Corning Photovoltaic Glass Technologies, said. But, I guess, he has to think and say that. Nonetheless, it seems to me there’s definitely a strong, sincere feeling of optimism coming from the company (or I’m just having a good morning).

Here’s more from the company:

“We understand the current market challenges for photovoltaics and the focus on delivering cost-effective solar energy solutions. Clearly, energy conversion efficiency is integral to addressing these challenges. Therefore, we are very excited about this initial deployment of Corning’s PV glass substrates and their ability to deliver on such an important need in the advancement of thin-film PV solutions,” said Dr. Gary Calabrese, senior vice president, Corning New Business Development. “The substantial efficiency improvement of our glass technology has been demonstrated in lab and customer trials. Now, this order validates the need for engineered glass to drive higher conversion efficiency and can provide module makers with a competitive advantage.”

Source: Corning