Episode 161 | CadTel Cells | Toledo Solar
When most people think about solar panels, they almost all assume they are silicon. That’s why it was a surprise to me as well that cadmium telluride (CdTe, or “CadTel”) is taking a larger share of the market.
According to my guest, 92% of all new utility-scale solar installations in the United States used CdTe modules. They already make up 40% of the total domestic utility market.
That utility CdTe space is dominated by First Solar, a domestic manufacturer. However, practically none of the remaining commercial/industrial/residential market uses CdTe, only silicon.
Ohio-based Toledo Solar believes they can provide CdTe for these markets. Located just 10 minutes from First Solar, Toledo’s founder, president, and CEO Aaron Bates says his company has the distinction of being the only privately-held solar manufacturer in the county.
“Our calculus in starting Toledo Solar [in 2019] was this technology had never been made available, quite frankly, to those non-utility markets,” says Aaron. According to the Department of Energy, approx. 45% of the market for solar is in the non-utility.
So what makes CadTel so special? Aaron says:
- CdTe has a wider spectral response, or “band gap,” allowing it to see more of the sun’s visible light
- CdTe is not bothered by warm temperatures. Silicon semiconductors begin to top out at 50°C/122°F.
- CdTe can be manufactured all over the world, and is not as impacted by global supply chains
Aaron describes their design as “elegant in its simplicity.” To create a completed panel, vaporized CadTel is sprayed on a sheet of tempered glass, laminated, and sandwiched with another sheet of glass. At ¼ inch and able to withstand a static load of 1,000 lbs., Aaron says the glass is essentially bullet-proof.
I was curious how difficult it has been to break into the market. Despite global behemoths with levels of magnitude more capacity, Aaron says their CdTe cells are already competitive on price, because the technology has historically had a faster payback period. He admits there was an educational hurdle in the beginning with folks who may have only worked with silicon.
“I the utility-scale solar world, everyone knows CdTe,” he says. “When you look at the non-utility markets, that in the last 20 years have only been serviced by silicon, they don’t know what CdTe is.” He adds that his team had to beef up their inside sales and sales engineering teams, choosing to sell directly to installers and developers rather than distributors.
Aaron sums up the sales pitch in one sentence: “You have it producing more power, longer, degrading less, throughout a 30-40 year lifetime.”
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