The Japanese oil refiner says its development laboratory in South Carolina will conduct prototypes of space-grade copper indium gallium-selenide solar cells as it works toward commercialising the technology.
Japanese petroleum company Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. has established a development laboratory for space-grade copper indium gallium-selenide (CIGS) solar cells in the United States.
According to an update published by the company, the laboratory, located at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Oasis facility, is the first of its kind.
Idemitsu says it plans to rapidly conduct prototyping and evaluations of space-grade CIGS solar cells based on identified market needs and technical requirements. It will also use the U.S. lab to enable evaluation and reliability validation and provide technical analyses and proposals for customer requirements.
“Insights gained from the U.S. market will be quickly fed back to Idemitsu’s research and development activities and incorporated into product development and mass-production technology development in Japan,” the company’s statement explains. “Through these initiatives, Idemitsu aims to accelerate commercialization of spacegrade CIGS solar cells.”
