By Dr. Alex Cole, Business Development Manager for Photovoltaics, Narec
Laser grooved buried contact (LGBC) solar cell technology is proving to be an attractive method of producing solar cells that are designed to operate at one sun and at concentration. Such technology is commercially available at Narec for applications at up to 100 suns. Although LGBC cells can have a higher efficiency at one sun when compared with standard non-selective emitter screen-printed solar cells, a more complex manufacturing process is required for these cells. This paper outlines the approach taken under the FP6 EU funded project “Lab2Line”, in which screen-printing and LGBC solar cell processing techniques are hybridized in order to produce lower cost, high efficiency solar cells.
