Advancements in solar technology and the rapidly expanding landscape of photovoltaic arrays are raising concerns about environmental toxicity namely the use of cadmium telluride cdte in most photovoltaic pv solar cells.
Cadmium telluride solar panels cost.
Additionally cadmium telluride panels can be manufactured at low costs as cadmium is abundant and generated as a byproduct of important industrial materials like zinc.
Cadmium telluride is a direct band gap material with high absorption for the full spectrum.
A main concern with cdte panels is pollution.
Success of cadmium telluride pv has been due to the low cost achievable with the cdte technology made possible by combining adequate efficiency with lower module area costs.
Those who live near the 230 megawatt antelope valley solar ranch one want to know whether the 3 7 million cadmium telluride cdte thin film solar panels first solar will install in their desert.
Cadmium by itself is one of the most toxic materials known and cadmium telluride also has some toxic properties.
Excellent low light effect it works even indoor.
A research team from washington state university claims to have developed a new manufacturing process to produce cadmium telluride cdte pv panels that is 45 cheaper than current industry standards.
Cadmium telluride solar cells use low cost manufacturing technology to produce low cost cells.
Production the most common cdte solar cells consist of a simple p n heterojunction structure containing a p doped cdte layer matched with an n doped cadmium sulfide cds layer which acts as a window layer.
The question of what happens when indictments of current energy sources are also levied towards alternative sources is an important one.