Solar Frontier, IBM to jointly conduct PV cells research

(ADPnews) - Oct 21, 2010 - US technology company International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), or IBM, and Japanese photovoltaic (PV) firm Solar Frontier will join hands on the development of a solar cell technology, based on copper, zinc, tin, sulfur, and selenium (CZTS).

Research will mainly take place at IBM's research centre in New York, Solar Frontier said on Tuesday.

Solar Frontier is a 100% subsidiary of Japanese gasoline (petrol) provider Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K (TYO:5002). The company currently makes thin film solar cells, containing copper, indium, selenium, gallium, and sulfur (CIS).

The deal with Solar Frontier comes shortly after IBM partnered also with Taiwanese PV products maker DelSolar Co., Ltd. (TPO:3599), again for research on the CZTS technology.

"Adding Solar Frontier’s deep expertise in thin-film-based solar device technology to this project will strengthen the collaborative effort we began in this area with Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co.,Ltd., for developing chemistry and tooling expertise; and more recently adding DelSolar’s solar module and manufacturing expertise. This team will significantly increase our ability to create CZTS photovoltaic technology that achieves sustainable grid parity," said T.C. Chen, vice president of science and technology IBM Research.

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