Current Issue : April-June Volume : 2023 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 5 Articles
We present our own Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC) technology, which was developed at ISC Konstanz and implemented in mass production with and at SPIC Solar in Xining, China, with production efficiencies of over 24%. To our knowledge, this is the highest efficiency achieved in the mass production of crystalline silicon solar cells without the use of charge-carrier-selective contacts. With an adapted screen-printing sequence, it is possible to achieve open-circuit voltages of over 700 mV. Advanced module technology has been developed for the IBC interconnection, which is ultimately simpler than for conventional double-sided contacted solar cells. In the next step, we will realize low-cost charge-carrier-selective contacts for both polarities in a simple sequence using processes developed and patented at ISC Konstanz. With the industrialisation of this process, it will be possible to achieve efficiencies well above 25% at low cost. We will show that with the replacement of silver screen-printed contacts by copper or aluminium metallisation, future IBC technology will be the end product for the PV market, as it is the best performing c-Si technology, leading to the lowest cost of electricity, even in utility-scale applications....
The electron transfer layer (ETL) plays a vital role in achieving high‐performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is primarily utilised as the ETL since it is low‐cost, chemically stable, and has the simplest thin‐film preparation methods. However, TiO2 is not an ideal ETL because it leads to low conductivity, conduction band mismatch, and unfavourable electron mobility. In addition, the exposure of TiO2 to ultraviolet light induces the formation of oxygen vacancies at the surface. To overcome these issues, doping TiO2 with various metal ions is favourable to improve the surface structure properties and electronic properties. This review focuses on the bulk modification of TiO2 via doping with various metal ions concentrations to improve electrical and optical properties, charge carrier density, and interfacial electron–hole recombination, thus contributing to enhancing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the PSCs....
In this study, nitrogen-doped nickel graphene core cells (N-NiGR) are synthesized using the thermal chemical vapor deposition method. The structural, morphological, and chemical composition properties of N-NiGR are investigated using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. N-NiGR has shown potential as a material that can assist charge carrier transportation in the photoactive a layer of planar hybrid solar cell (PHSC) owing to its high charge carrier mobility and stability with the solution process. Here, we investigated for the first time an enhancement of the solar cell efficiency (by up to a 2% increase) in PHSCs by incorporating the charge selective N-NiGR into the device’s photoactive layer. Synthesized N-NiGR with different concentrations are incorporated into the active layer of the devices as charge transport material. The device structure of an ITO-coated glass/Hole transport layer/(PBT7+N-NiGR+SnS)/Electron transport layer/Cathode is fabricated and the maximum power conversion efficiency of the device was observed to be about 4.35%....
The world is moving towards a low-carbon economy through renewable energy sources. In this context, concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies can exploit the rich solar resource in Brazil, diversifying the national electricity mix. The aim of this paper is to support the insertion of CSP generation in the Brazilian bottom-up model MATRIZ by analyzing the environmental performance of three CSP technologies: (i) solar tower power (STP) with a thermal storage system (TSS) of 7.5 h; (ii) solar thermal parabolic trough (STPT) with a TSS of 6 h; and (iii) STPT without TSS. From a life cycle perspective, their freshwater consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are addressed by employing the software SimaPro, the Ecoinvent database, and the ReCiPe 2016 method, as well as information from the system advisory model (SAM) and the literature. As a result, STP is the most environmentally sound CSP alternative, presenting lower GHG emissions and water consumption than the two STPT technologies. In general, CSP generation proves to be more environmentally attractive than some fossil-fired power plants and renewable energy sources. Moreover, moving the manufacturing of CSP technologies to Brazil has the potential to reduce GHG emissions from the upstream processes of their value chain....
This work is a contribution to the study of hybrid systems for converting solar and wind energy into electricity in Burkina Faso. The approach consists of evaluating and analyzing the production of a wind turbine and a solar field in order to optimize the production of all the technologies. The results obtained made it possible to evaluate the operating performance of the installation and to show the complementarity between the two energy sources with regard to temporary and seasonal variations in resources. During nighttime periods or periods of low sunlight, the wind turbine is a good alternative to energy storage by batteries, the output of the wind turbine can be up to 853.76 W. It was also a question of proposing solutions for optimizing the hybrid system through the automation of the hybrid charge regulator. A minimum height of 30 m above the ground has been chosen as the optimum height for the wind turbine....
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