David Carlson Besac 7 09

Basic Science Issues in the
Development of Photovoltaics
David E. Carlson
Chief Scientist, BP Solar
July 9, 2009
Projected PV Installations and Revenues
 The PV industry has grown at CAGR of ~ 45% over the last decade.
 However, 2009 looks to be tough year – iSuppli predicts a 32%
decrease in PV installations and a 12% decrease in prices in 2009.
 Lux Research believes average selling prices may fall > 25% in 2009.
Forecast for PV Electricity Production
 Sharp forecasts that PV will supply 10% of the world’s electricity by 2032
 Assuming a CAGR of 35% (average over the last few decades), the cumulative PV
production would be ~ 3.5 TWp by 2026.
 3 TWp of solar electricity will reduce carbon emissions by about 1 Gton per year
(7 Gtons of carbon were emitted as CO2 in 2000)
The Major Players
Crystalline Si a-Si/µc-Si CIGS CdTe
  
Sharp United Solar  Avancis First Solar
 Kaneka
 Kyocera  Fuji Electric  Showa Shell  Antec Solar
 BP Solar  Sharp
 Wurth Solar  AVA
 Mitsubisihi
 Q-Cells  PrimeStar Solar
 Schott Solar  DayStar
 Mitsubishi  AMAT licensees
 SunTech
 Nanosolar
 SolarWorld  PowerFilm
 Sanyo  OptiSolar  There are currently about 325
 EPV
 Schott Solar companies developing or
 Isofoton producing solar cells.
 Motech
 Suntech  Total PV production is
 Evergreen Solar forecasted to be ~10 GWp in
 GE Energy 2009, but demand may only be
~ 3.5 GWp (which can be met
by top 10 companies).
The Typical Silicon Solar Cell
 This device structure is used by most manufacturers today.

• The front contact is usually formed by POCl3 diffusion
• The rear contact is formed by firing screen-printed Al to form a back-surface
field
 The cell efficiencies for screen-printed multicrystalline silicon cells are

Operation of a Solar Cell
 The theoretical limit for a crystalline silicon solar cell is ~ 29%.

Research Needs for Photovoltaics
Lower Costs
 Efficiency improvements will help to lower costs of PV electricity
 Low-cost storage required for significant penetration of the grid (> 10%)
 In the case of silicon solar cells, there is a need for a high-quality, thin
silicon wafer or sheet (10 – 50 m) that can be produced at low cost
 Automated high throughput process with intelligent process control
 We’ll need to replace silver contacts with lower cost materials such as
copper or carbon-based materials (nanotubes?)
• At an annual production of ~ 154 GWp (~ 2016), the PV industry would be
using the entire annual production of Ag (~ 19,000 tons/yr)
 Low-cost (i.e. abundant) materials must be incorporated into reliable, high
performance PV modules and systems (annual total U.S. electricity
demand is ~ 3 x 1012 kWh which can be met by PV arrays with an area of
100 miles x 100 miles in the U.S. Southwest).
PV Experience Curve
Cost of Materials Limit (20% Modules)
 PV module prices have followed an experience curve with a slope of

~ 80% (a 20% decrease in price with every doubling of cumulative
production).
Efficiency
 Efficiency is a major driver in reducing costs and meeting energy

requirements in limited areas
 Further efficiency improvements are possible with all PV technologies

Conversion Efficiencies vs. Time (NREL)
 There has been steady progress in the improvement of conversion

efficiencies for a number of PV technologies over the last few decades.
PV Module Conversion Efficiencies
Modules Cells (Lab)
 Dye-sensitized solar cells 3 – 5% 8.2%

 Amorphous silicon (multijunction) 6 - 8% 13.2%
 Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) thin film 8 - 10% 16.5%
 Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenium (CIGS) 9 - 11% 19.9%
 Multicrystalline or polycrystalline silicon 12 - 15% 20.3%
 Monocrystalline silicon 14 - 16% 23.4%
 High performance monocrystalline silicon 17 - 20% 24.7%
 Triple-junction (GaInP/GaAs/Ge) cell (~ 250 suns) - 40.7%
 Triple-junction (GaInP/GaInAs/Ge ) (454 suns) - 41.1%
 For most PV technologies there is a large gap between the best

laboratory efficiencies and those achieved in production PV modules
Paths to Ultra-High Conversion Efficiencies
 Multijunction solar cells (currently used for some thin-film cells and for the highest efficiency
cells)
 Multiple absorption path solar cells (impact ionization, multiple exciton generation )
 Multiple energy level solar cells (localized levels or intermediate bands)
 Multiple spectrum solar cells (up and down conversion of photons)
 Multiple temperature solar cells (utilization of hot carriers)
 All these approaches have theoretical efficiency limits > 60%.
 The theoretical efficiency limit is > 80% for multijunction cells

utilizing other high efficiency approaches.
New Device Structures
 A number of new devices structures have appeared over the years resulting
in higher performance
 Some devices utilize new materials in novel structures

• e.g. dye-sensitized solar cells, bulk heterojunction organic solar cells,
luminescent quantum dot concentrators, etc.
SunPower Back Contact Solar Cell
 The SunPower cell has all its electrical contacts on the rear surface of the cell.
 Production cells ~ 22.4% efficiency; new prototypes at 23.4%.
 Diffusion lengths > 3 x cell thickness (using 145 m thick CZ-Si at end of 2008).
Sanyo HIT Solar Cell
 The HIT cell utilizes amorphous Si intrinsic layers (~ 5 nm) as passivation

layers. The cell is symmetric except for the a-Si p+ emitter layer (~ 10 nm) on
the front and the a-Si n+ contact layer (~ 15 nm) on the rear.
 Best lab efficiency = 22.3% (open-circuit voltages as high as 739 mV).
Delft Univ. of Technology
Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells
 Companies such as Sharp and Mitsubishi are developing variants of the

micromorph solar cell.
 Applied Materials and Oerlikon have each sold several manufacturing lines that
can produce single-junction amorphous silicon and micromorph solar cells.
Cadmium Telluride Solar Cells
 The CdS/CdTe heterojunction solar cell is

typically formed by using a chemical bath
technique to deposit the CdS and close
space vacuum sublimation to deposit the
CdTe.
 Toxicity of Cd is perceived by some to be
an issue.
 Best lab efficiency = 16.5%.
 First Solar reports a manufacturing cost ~
$0.94/Wp.
 They’re selling modules at ~ $2/Wp.
 They plan to have 570 MWp of capacity
by the end of 2009.
Copper-Indium-Gallium-Diselenide Cell
 NREL has demonstrated an efficiency of 19.9% for the CIGS solar cell.
 Typically requires relatively high temperature processing (> 500C).
Spectrolab’s Triple-Junction Solar Cell
 Spectrolab has reported a conversion efficiency of 40.7% with this

solar cell structure operating at ~ 250 suns.
 More recently Fraunhofer ISE has obtained an efficiency of 41.1%
with a triple-junction cell operating at ~ 454 suns.
Environmental Issues
 Some photovoltaic materials are highly toxic and must be processed with
appropriate safeguards and obsolete/damaged product should be recycled
 Research on new materials and devices should define all potential hazards
before commercialization
Sustainability
 Need to use materials that are plentiful - some PV materials may be
constrained by availability when production reaches tens of GWp/yr;
e.g. In (byproduct of Zn refining), Se and Te (byproducts of Cu refining)
Reliability
 Further reliabilty improvements are required in PV systems (inverters,
batteries, etc.)
 Encapsulation is necessary to protect contacts, interconnects and some
PV materials (crystalline silicon PV modules are warranted for 25
years)
 Possible failure mechanisms must be identified for new PV materials
and devices
Diagnostics
 There is a need for rapid characterization of critical parameters such as
minority carrier lifetime, efficiency of light trapping, junction quality,
etc. for quality control of production lines
Research Needs for Photovoltaics - Diagnostics
Trupke et al., 4th World Conf. on PV (2006)
 PL imaging can provide a high resolution map of the minority carrier

lifetime of a silicon wafer in ~ 1 second
Conclusions
 Many of us believe that photovoltaics could become the major
energy source for the world in the later part of this century, but
continued research and development are required in several areas:
 PV system costs must be reduced significantly
 Improved conversion efficiencies
 Long-term reliability must be ensured for new PV materials &

devices
 Future PV systems should be environmentally benign

David Carlson Besac 7 09

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

David Carlson Besac 7 09

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

David Carlson Besac 7 09

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Basic Science Issues in the

 This device structure is used by most manufacturers today.

 The cell efficiencies for screen-printed multicrystalline silicon cells are

 The theoretical limit for a crystalline silicon solar cell is ~ 29%.

Cost of Materials Limit (20% Modules)

 PV module prices have followed an experience curve with a slope of

 Efficiency is a major driver in reducing costs and meeting energy

 Further efficiency improvements are possible with all PV technologies

 There has been steady progress in the improvement of conversion

 Dye-sensitized solar cells 3 – 5% 8.2%

 For most PV technologies there is a large gap between the best

 Multiple energy level solar cells (localized levels or intermediate bands)

 Multiple spectrum solar cells (up and down conversion of photons)

 Multiple temperature solar cells (utilization of hot carriers)

 All these approaches have theoretical efficiency limits > 60%.

 The theoretical efficiency limit is > 80% for multijunction cells

New Device Structures

 Some devices utilize new materials in novel structures

 The HIT cell utilizes amorphous Si intrinsic layers (~ 5 nm) as passivation

 Companies such as Sharp and Mitsubishi are developing variants of the

 The CdS/CdTe heterojunction solar cell is

 Spectrolab has reported a conversion efficiency of 40.7% with this

Trupke et al., 4th World Conf. on PV (2006)

 PL imaging can provide a high resolution map of the minority carrier

 PV system costs must be reduced significantly

 Improved conversion efficiencies

 Long-term reliability must be ensured for new PV materials &

 Future PV systems should be environmentally benign

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.