High-efficiency silicon concentrator solar cells
Recent developments in the non-concentrating silicon cell area have been applied to concentrator cells. This has resulted in a marked improvement in low-resistivity concentrator cell energy conversion efficiency to values in the 23 to 25% range at 50 to 150 suns concentration with values above 20% recorded out to 1,000 suns. Processing requirements for high-resistivity silicon cells have also been explored with 'one-sun' open-circuit voltages in the 630 to 640-mV range demonstrated on both p-type and n-type high-resistivity substrates. The latter n-type substrates are argued to have the better long-term potential from the point of view of fabricating high-efficiency, bifacially contacted cells on such high-resistivity substrates. Light trapping based on both randomizing and geometrical schemes is examined. It is concluded that light trapping is particularly relevant to concentrator cells and may allow 30% module efficiency to be reached using thin silicon cells.
- Research Organization:
- Joint Microelectronics Research Centre, Kensington (Australia)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 6773741
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-87-7007; ON: DE87010158
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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