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PERC+: industrial PERC solar cells with rear Al grid enabling bifaciality and reduced Al paste consumption
Author(s) -
Dullweber Thorsten,
Kranz Christopher,
Peibst Robby,
Baumann Ulrike,
Hannebauer Helge,
Fülle Alexander,
Steckemetz Stefan,
Weber Torsten,
Kutzer Martin,
Müller Matthias,
Fischer Gerd,
Palinginis Phedon,
Neuhaus Holger
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
progress in photovoltaics: research and applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.286
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1099-159X
pISSN - 1062-7995
DOI - 10.1002/pip.2712
Subject(s) - materials science , common emitter , solar cell , screen printing , optoelectronics , electrical engineering , aluminium , busbar , composite material , engineering
Passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) solar cells are currently being introduced into mass production. In this paper, we report a novel PERC solar cell design that applies a screen‐printed rear Al finger grid instead of the conventional full‐area aluminum (Al) rear layer while using the same PERC manufacturing sequence. We name this novel cell concept PERC+ because it offers several advantages. In particular, the Al paste consumption of the PERC+ cells is drastically reduced to 0.15 g instead of 1.6 g for the conventional PERC cells. The Al fingers create 2‐µm‐deeper aluminum back surface fields, which increases the open‐circuit voltage by 4 mV. The five‐busbar Al finger grid enables bifacial applications of the PERC+ cells with front‐side efficiencies up to 20.8% and rear‐side efficiencies up to 16.5% measured with a black chuck. The corresponding bifaciality is 79%. When applied in monofacial modules where the white back sheet acts as external rear reflector, the efficiency of the PERC+ cells is estimated to 20.9%, which is comparable with conventional PERC cells. Whereas Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin developed the aforementioned PERC+ results, SolarWorld independently pioneered a very similar bifacial PERC+ cell process starting in 2014. Transfer into mass production has been successfully accomplished, and novel glass–glass bifacial PERC+ modules have been launched at the Intersolar 2015 based on a most simple, lean, and cost‐effective bifacial cell process. These new bifacial PERC+ modules show an increase in annual energy yield between 5% and 25% in simulations, which is confirmed by first outdoor measurements. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.