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Katrien.Marent
SunPower has indeed achieved efficiencies above 23%. There is however a ...
Sanjib.Acharya
Yes, I think SunPower Corporation anounced acheiving 24.2% efficiency in June ...
IMEC reports 19.4% efficient solar cells
Peter Clarke
9/6/2010 10:47 AM EDT
LONDON – European research institute IMEC has presented large-area silicon cells with a conversion efficiency of 19.4 percent.
Addressing the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (Valencia, Spain), imec unveiled two types of cells. With screen printed silver contacts efficiencies of up to 19.1 percent were achieved whereas 19.4 percent was achieved with copper-plated contacts.
The efficiencies
were obtained due to a combination of factors including improved texture
and optimized firing conditions. The results were achieved on
large-area cells (148 square centimeters) with 170-micron thickness,
proving the industrial viability of the process.
The silicon solar cells feature rear-side passivation, laser ablation
and, local aluminum back-side field and screenprinted contacts or
Cu-plated contacts on advanced emitter schemes.
"The fact that such efficiencies can be obtained by metallization schemes based on screen printed silver contacts enables compatibility with present industrial metallization practice in the solar cell industry. The copper-based front-side metallization is a step towards higher sustainability and lower cost, substituting Ag with Cu in future industrial production of crystalline silicon solar cells," said Joachim John, team manager for industrial solar cells at IMEC (Leuven, Belgium).
IMEC is targeting cells with greater than 20 percent efficiency on 40-micron thick silicon.
Related links and articles:
IMEC launches cancer lab-on-chip project
Heliatek adds foil to organic solar cells
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kinnar
9/7/2010 12:39 AM EDT
I think this is not the highest efficiency obtained for solar cells, as
SunPower Corp. has produced a full-scale solar cell with a sunlight to electricity conversion efficiency of 24.2 percent at its manufacturing plant in the Philippines. This is a new world record for large area silicon wafers, and has been confirmed by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).
But still it is required that everyone in the solar segment grows with better result, that way the world will be competative.
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Sanjib.Acharya
9/7/2010 3:51 AM EDT
Yes, I think SunPower Corporation anounced acheiving 24.2% efficiency in June this year? But I'm not sure if the eficiency was claimed on one batch in production or whether they improved something in the design and/or the manufacturing process in order to acheive 24.2% efficiency. Anyways, I feel there is a need of a major "break-through" in this technology to increase the efficiency to a cost-effective level.
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Katrien.Marent
9/10/2010 6:22 AM EDT
SunPower has indeed achieved efficiencies above 23%. There is however a difference with the imec technology. Imec achieved these efficiencies using more traditional low-cost technologies and aims at a more sustainable technology by using Cu metallization.
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