Tuesday, January 25, 2011

HelioVolt Claims Advances

Austin-based HelioVolt, the developer of thin film photovoltaic modules, said today that it has reached a number of milestone in its testing. The firm said its modules have completed rigorous accelerated lifetime testing, showing a degradation rate "one to two orders" of magnitude lower than typical modules, and that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has confirmed its conversion efficiency at 11.8 percent for its monolithically integrated 1.2 x 0.6 meter module size. Heliovolt has received more than $140M in venture financing to brings its products to market. The firm develops thin-film, CIGS photovoltaic modules targeted at the utility scale solar market.