Corning Inc. says it has received its first commercial order for photovoltaic glass substrates.
This milestone order follows three years of development work and extensive customer engagement, resulting in an engineered glass that the company says enables higher efficiency and lighter-weight thin-film photovoltaic modules. The PV glass substrates will ship immediately.
Corning's PV glass substrates can increase current thin-film module efficiency by 20% to 30%, according to the company. 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, Corning adds.
