Despite the huge strides energy storage has made, significant hurdles remain before the technology in its many guises can be claimed to have fulfilled its massive potential. Introducing a PV Tech Power energy storage special report, Andy Colthorpe assesses the key successes and ongoing challenges for this indispensable part of the future power system.
Photovoltaics International’s annual analysis of PV manufacturers, research and development (R&D) spending in 2018 includes 21 companies that were public listed on various stock exchanges around the world. R&D spending data was taken from audited annual financial reports and converted to US dollars at the time of the reports being published. The analysis in this 2018 report is intended to provide a good representation of global R&D spending trends in the PV wafer, cell and module segments of the upstream solar market.
This paper reports on the latest advances in passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC)-based shingled solar cell activities at Fraunhofer ISE. The approach taken is to fabricate 6" host wafers from
Czochralski-grown silicon and separate them after metallization and contact firing into bifacial p-type shingled passivated edge, emitter and rear (pSPEER) solar cells.
Heterojunction technology is currently a hot topic actively discussed in the silicon PV community. Hevel recently became one of the first companies to adopt its old micromorph module line for manufacturing high-efficiency silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells and modules. On the basis of Hevel’s own experience, this paper looks at all the production steps involved, from wafer texturing through to final module assembly.
This paper presents the calibration of solar cells, in accordance with the IEC 60904 standards, carried out at the solar cell calibration laboratory of the Calibration and Test Center (CalTeC) at the Institute of Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH). For the calibration of a solar cell, the cell area, the spectral responsivity (SR) and the current–voltage (I–V) curve have to be determined. The I–V curve then yields the characteristic parameters, including the power conversion efficiency, fill factor, short-circuit current and opencircuit voltage. The required measurement facilities and contacting stages are explained in detail; in addition, the measurement procedures are introduced. The precision and accuracy of the resulting characteristic parameters and curves are demonstrated by recent intercomparisons between different international calibration laboratories.
Passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) solar cell design is the industry standard for high-volume solar cell manufacturing today. The next challenge for the PV industry is to find a low-cost cell upgrade technology platform that can be easily retrofitted in existing production lines to modify the front side and enhance the rear. The monoPolyTM technology platform, developed at SERIS together with its strategic industry partners, offers an attractive solution and paves the way for the adoption of passivating contacts in large-scale manufacturing. This platform requires only one tool upgrade for most PERC/T production lines, has one less process step than a standard PERC production process, and yields a +1%abs. efficiency boost over a standard PERC process. The
authors believe that monoPoly will enable the PV industry to mass produce cells with efficiencies exceeding 24% in their existing lines in the near future.
The PV industry is undergoing rapid technology changes that have been driven by the well-documented swift adoption of monocrystalline wafers. Less well understood, however, is that within this wafer technology transition comes a shift to larger wafer sizes, and this includes p-type and n-type mono-Si wafers.
This paper explains how these modern production concepts are implemented in ISC’s lab, and details the plans for their utilization in future production sites, with illustrations of the key benefits in practice. With these modern manufacturing concepts, it will even be possible to bring future c-Si PV production back to the EU with the choice of an appropriate cell concept (high efficiency but proven technology, e.g. interdigitated back-contact (IBC) cells, such as ZEBRA) and a sound business plan.
Today, solar power is one of the cheapest ways of providing energy internationally, partly because of the excellent R&D work in Europe. Prices of modules have fallen by half in the past three years, and at the same time the use of solar power has been steadily increasing. The reason why there has been an increase in the use of solar energy in Europe and Germany is the achievement of the climate targets of the Paris Agreement. While the machines for the production of solar modules are still manufactured in Germany, the production of cells has now almost completely migrated to Asia. Therefore, the VDMA commissioned a study from Fraunhofer ISE to evaluate whether the production of solar modules at competitive costs could again be realized in Europe. This paper presents the results of the VDMA study.
