An increasing number of banks are turning away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy financing. As Catherine Early reports, despite the chilling effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the industry, hopes are high that a tipping point is nearing.
PV’s rise to the mainstream finds it now inextricably linked to an economy tumbling towards recession. Players approached by José Rojo acknowledge the disruption but believe the chaos may hand the industry a chance to become a core part of a new world rebuilt along green lines.
From manufacturing and logistics constraints to power price collapses, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are being felt throughout the entire solar supply chain. Liam Stoker details the impacts on the industry and how they have been mitigated.
Since its emergence, the novel coronavirus has spread quickly across the world causing untold disruption. Liam Stoker and José Rojo detail how the pandemic has affected the clean energy economy to date.
Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell technology is an attractive technology for large-scale production of solar cells with a high conversion efficiency beyond 24%. One key element of SHJ solar cells, contrasting with today’s widespread passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) cell technology, is the use of transparent conductive oxide (TCO), which poses challenges in performance and costs but also presents opportunities. This paper discusses these aspects and shows the potential for improving cell efficiency at reduced cost by using new TCOs deposited by direct current (DC) sputtering.
In this paper the situation of solar cell production in China is summarized, and an attempt is made to answer the question of whether passivated contacts could replace PERC technology, which will eventually reach its efficiency limit in the future.
Passivated-contact solar cell designs, such as TOPCon or silicon heterojunction solar cells (SHJs), enable cell efficiencies greater than 24%, and are promising candidates for the next revolution in mass production after the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC). Plated metallization (Ni/Cu/Ag or Cu/Ag) fits well with new constraints on low-temperature processing and the combination of low material costs and highly conductive bifacial metal grids for these types of solar cell.
For the work reported in this paper, a new model of the screen-printing process was set up in order to improve the understanding of the screenprinting process, with a focus on the interaction between Ag paste and the screen.
Different types of PV backsheet provide modules with varying levels of protection in warm, humid conditions. Haidan Gong, Minge Gao and Yiwei of Wuxi Suntech’s PV test centre detail the results of research undertaken to better understand the properties of different backsheet materials in tropical conditions.
Half-cell modules are gaining an increasing market share because of their potential for increasing module power without requiring any changes to cell technology. However, it has emerged that different cell separation technologies can produce similar electrical performances of the half cells, yet lead to an entirely different mechanical behaviour of the cells.
