Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Dross, Frederic
• Baert, Kris
• Bearda, Twan
• Deckers, Jan
• Depauw, Valerie
• El Daif, Ounsi
• Gordon, Ivan
• Gougam, Adel
• Govaerts, Jonathan
• Granata, Stefano
• Labie, Riet
• Loozen, Xavier
• Martini, Roberto
• Masolin, Alex
• O'Sullivan, Barry
• Qiu, Yu
• Vaes, Jan
• Van Gestel, Dries
• Van Hoeymissen, Jan
• Vanleenhove, Anja
• Van Nieuwenhuysen, Kris
• Venkatachalam, Srisaran
• Meuris, Marc
• Poortmans, Jef

Titel

Crystalline thin-foil silicon solar cells: where crystalline quality meets thin-film processing

Ist Teil von

• Progress in photovoltaics, 2012-09, Vol.20 (6), p.770-784

Ort / Verlag

Bognor Regis: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Quelle

Wiley Online Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• ABSTRACT Crystalline Si (c‐Si) technology is dominating the photovoltaics market. These modules are nonetheless still relatively expensive, in particular because of the costly silicon wafers, which require large thickness mostly to ease handling. Thin‐film technologies, on the other hand, use much less active material, exhibit a much lower production cost per unit area, but achieve an efficiency still limited on module level, which increases the total system costs. A meet‐in‐the‐middle is possible and is the object of this paper. The development of c‐Si thin‐foil modules is presented: first, the fabrication of the active material on a glass module and then the processing of the Si foils into solar cells, directly on module level. The activity of IMEC in this area is put into perspective with regard to worldwide research results. It appears that great opportunities are offered to this cell concept, although some challenges still need to be tackled before cost‐effective and reliable industrial production can be launched. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Crystalline Si technology is dominating the photovoltaics market. These modules are nonetheless still relatively expensive. Thin‐film technologies, on the other hand, exhibit a much lower production cost per unit area, but achieve an efficiency still limited on module level, which increases the total system costs. A meet‐in‐the‐middle is possible: crystalline Si thin‐film modules. First, we present the fabrication of the active material, and then we describe the processing of the Si foils into solar cells, directly on module level.