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Japanese startup PXP Corporation and JGC Japan Corporation, a unit of JGC Corporation, are collaborating on a 1-kW, one-year project to test lightweight chalcopyrite panels in Yokohama. JGC Japan Corporation, an engineering, procurement and construction unit of Japan-based JGC Holdings Corporation, and PXP Corporation, a developer of lightweight, flexible photovoltaic module technologies, are partnering on a one-year, 1 kW, grid-connected trial of chalcopyrite (CuGaSe2) solar panels on a building located in Yokohama. CuGaSe2 has an energy bandgap of 1.7 eV and has so far been used in solar cells with limited fill factor and open circuit voltage. PXP Corporations prototypes are installed at JGCs Yokohama facility, in a building with a surface that mimics the type of folded-plate roofs typical of Japanese factories and warehouses. Hiroki Sugimoto, CEO of PXP, confirmed to pv magazine that the 1 kW system is grid-connected and that the modules weigh 2 kg per square meter (m2) with an output power ranging from 100 to 120 W/m2. PXP plans to manufacture CuGaSe2 modules with a power of 160 to 180 W/m2 and is also developing perovskite-chalcopyrite tandem cell technology. For perovskite-chalcopyrite tandem cells, our target is 260 to 280 W/m2, Sugimoto says. The panels in the study are secured using a novel sheet-based solution developed by JGC for the quick and secure installation of lightweight photovoltaic panels on industrial roofs. The pre-commercial mounting technology is based on a heat-shielding polymer sheet with flexible photovoltaic modules on top, secured by a metal tube component with a gripper cutout. Early results indicate that one worker could install 100 square meters per day with the JGC mounting system. It is also reportedly much easier to dismantle than competing non-penetrating solar panel mounting systems. The project began in April and will last approximately one year. PXP Corporation recently raised 1.5 billion yen ($9.98 million) in a round led by Japans Softbank Corp. to move forward with its plan to build a 25 MW chalcopyrite module factory. |
