New processes for cost-efficient solar cell production

Many people answer with a resounding 'yes!' when asked if they want environmentally friendly solar cell-based power - though it should be inexpensive. For this reason, a veritable price war is raging among the makers of photovoltaic cells. Above all, the cheap products of Asian origin are making life tough for domestic manufacturers. Tough, that is, until now: the researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST in Braunschweig are providing support to these companies. They are engineering coating processes and thin film systems aimed at lowering the production costs of solar cells drastically.

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