CdTe / Cadmium-Telluride solar panels

spinningmagnets

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There is currently a factory for these in Ohio and Germany. These were affordable per watt, but had low efficiency, so it required you to buy more panels to match the output of a silicon solar panel array. Since most people are space limited (house roof, RV roof, back yard, sailboat), getting the most watts from the smallest possible array has been a driving factor.

Recently, CdTe efficiency has been improved to a hair over 20% (on par with silicon), so...it's lower cost per watt is driving a recent spurt in it's sales. Cadmium is readily available, it is even used as a corrosion-inhibiting plating material on bolts and screws. It's considered toxic ("heavy" metal), but...as long as you don't consume it you should be OK. Tellurium is rare and that's a limiting factor.
 
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