Device Architecture Simplification of Laser Pattering in High-Volume Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell Fabrication using Intensive Computation for Design and Optimization

Grupp Mueller, Guenther¹  Herfurth, Hans²  Dunham, Scott³  Xu, Ba 

[1] SolarWorld Industries America, Hillsboro, OR (United States);Fraunhofer Center for Laser Technology (FhCLT), Plymouth, MI (United States);Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)

关键词: Cost per Watt;    Cell technology;    MWT;    Laser processing;    Extrusion Printing;    Device Simulation;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1107723
RP-ID  :  DOE-SOLARWORLD--5313
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1107723

学科分类：再生能源与代替技术

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

Prices of Si based solar modules have been continuously declining in recent years. Goodrich is pointing out that a significant portion of these cost reductions have come about due to ???economies of scale??? benefits, but there is a point of diminishing returns when trying to lower cost by simply expanding production capacity. Developing innovative high volume production technologies resulting in an increase of conversion efficiency without adding significant production cost will be necessary to continue the projected cost reductions. The Foundational Program to Advance Cell Efficiency (FPACE) is seeking to achieve this by closing the PV efficiency gap between theoretical achievable maximum conversion efficiency - 29% for c-Si - and the current typical production - 18.5% for a typical full area back contact c-Si Solar cell ??? while targeting a module cost of $0.50/Watt . The research conducted by SolarWorldUSA and it???s partners within the FPACE framework focused on the development of a Hybrid metal-wrap-through (MWT) and laser-ablated PERC solar cell design employing a extrusion metallization scheme to achieve >20% efficient devices. The project team was able to simulate, develop and demonstrate the technologies necessary to build p-type MWT PERC cells with extruded front contacts. Conversion efficiencies approaching 20% were demonstrated and a path for further efficiency improvements identified. A detailed cost of ownership calculation for such a device was based on a NREL cost model and is predicting a $/Watt cost below 85 cents on a 180 micron substrate.