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Prof K L Chopra Former Director , IIT Kharagpur Founder, Thin Film Laboratory, IIT Delhi & Microscience Laboratory, IIT Kharagpur
OUTLINE
Requirements for an ideal solar cell Thin film materials for viable solar cells Strengths and Weaknesses of various thin film cells Comparative production status of various cells New concepts to enhance cell conversion efficiency Concluding Remarks
SOLAR Cell:PHOTOVOLTAICS
Direct Conversion of light into electrical energy is called PHOTOVOLTAICS (PV) Photovoltaic devices which convert solar energy into electricity are called SOLAR CELLS Two electronically dissimilar materials (with different free electron densities) brought together to form a junction with a barrier form a PV device. Typical examples are : metal1-oxide-metal2 metal-semiconductor (Schottky) p-type semiconductor-n-type semiconductor (Homojunction) n+-n semiconductor p-type semiconductor(1)-n-type semiconductor(2) (Heterojunction) p- (Insulator)-n (p-i-n)1-(p-i-n)2- p-i-n)3 . (Multijunction) Jct 1/Jct 2 /Jct 3 (Tandem)
SOLAR CELL
Solar Cell operations depend on : Absorption of light to create electron-hole pairs (carriers) Diffusion of carriers Separation of electrons and holes Collection of carriers A Solar cell is a light driven battery with an open current voltage (Voc), short circuit current (Isc), maximum power point current and voltage (In, Vm), and a series and a parallel resistance (Rs, Rsh). Solar Cell Efficiency output = Im Vm = I siVIL FT input nhv nhv depends on quantum efficiency of creation of carriers, effectiveness of separation of carriers before recombination and collection of the separated carriers. Highest Theoretical Efficiency of known Jct Materials Homojunction ~ 30% Heterojunction ~ 42% 36 Tandem Multigap Jctns 76% o o o o
1.Cheap,Simple and Abundant Material 2.Integrated Large Scale Manufacturabilty 3.Cost (< 1$/watt)and Long Life
HIGH ABSORPTION COEFFICIENT > 105 cm-1 with direct band gap ~1.5 eV JUNCTION FORMATION ABILITY HIGH QUANTUM EFFICIENCY LONG DIFFUSION LENGTH LOW RECOMBINATION VELOCITY ABUNDANT,CHEAP & ECO-FRIENDLY MATERIAL CONVENIENCE OF SHAPES AND SIZES SIMPLE AND INEXPENSIVE INTEGRATED PROCESSING/MANUFACTURABILITY MINIMUM MATERIAL / WATT MINIMUM ENERGY INPUT/ WATT ENERGY PAY BACK PERIOD < 2 YEARS HIGH STABILTY and LONG LIFE (> 20 Years) COST (< 1$/Watt)
Source: unknown
Laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics: 9 and Research Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Testing Courtesy :Ayodhya Tiwari
Efficiency of single crystal Si cells (Laboratory) has been rising steadily to ~ 25% as a result of better understanding of the junction properties and innovations in cell design and fabrication technologies. Efficiency gap between best laboratory cells, submodules/modules, and mass produced modules varies with the maturity of technology and can be at least 10% lower at every step so that the manufactured cell may be as low as 50% of the efficiency of the best laboratory cell. The world PV production of ~ 7900 MW in FY 2009 is primarily (~ 93%) based on single, crystal and polycrystalline silicon. With increasing production of Si-PV from 200 kW in 1976 to 6900 MW in 2008, the cost of solar cells has decreased from $100 to about $3/Wp With the existing technology and the material cost, the cost of Si cells can not be decreased significantly unless major innovations in the production of appropriate quality silicon I thin sheets take place. Present day technology uses 8or larger pseudo square of ~ 200 m thickness, with an efficiency of ~ 15-16%. The energy (16-5 kWH/Wp) pay back period of such cells is ~3-4 years.The module life is about 25 years Specially designed silicon solar cells with efficiency ~ 18-20% are being manufactured on a limited scale for special applications (e.g for concentration). Polycrystalline silicon solar cells with efficiency ~ 12-14% are being produced on large scale. Specially designed thin(~ 20 m) films silicon solar cells with efficiency ~ 12% have been fabricated on a lab scale . Production of hybrid thin film Si cells on MW scale is being pursued
EPIA expects thin film shares will grow: 20% in 2010 with about 4 GW 25% in 2013 with about 9 GW
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TOPOGRAPHY RANGING FROM VERY ROUGH TO ATOMICALLY SMOOTH DIFFERENT TYPES OF JUNCTIONS POSSIBLE HOMO, HETERO, SCHOTTKY, PEC
TANDEM AND MULTI JUNCTION CELLS POSSIBLE IN-SITU CELL INTEGRATION TO FORM MODULES COMPATIBILITY WITH SOLAR THERMAL DEVICES
TAILORABILITY OF VARIOUS OPTO-ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES ( e.g; Energy Gap ,Electron Affinity ,Work function ,Graded Gap ,etc)
One of the simplest solar cell to produce with simple chemical conversion technique Highest efficiency obtained ~10 % Large scale production of modules with ~5% efficiency demonstrated during 70s Stability of cells due to cuprous-cupric conversion remained an issue Due to the emergence of higher efficiency Si cells, this cell lost the battle of survival Revival of this cell with suitable modifications is a possibility
Uncoordinated atoms and broken bonds (called dangling bonds are characteristics of a-Si
Hydrogen passivates the dangling bonds in a-Si:H. Almost uc-Si:H microcrystalline Si (hydrogenated) any impurity can be added to this open structure to obtain asuitable semiconducting behaviour
105 104
Absorption coefficient (cm-1)
103
102 101
c-Si:H
c-Si
a-Si:H
100
10-1 0.5 1
Energy (eV)
1.5
2.5
Courtesy : Vikram Dalal
mc-Si:H
CdS window
Metal contact
Substrate
a-Si:H
Highest: 20.3%
Cell area: ~0.5 cm2
Highest: 16.5%
Cell area: ~1 cm2
Highest: 13.3%
Cell area: ~0.25 cm2
NANOSOLAR
4. 5.
6.
7. 8. 9.
Deposition techniques include MBE, MOCVD, CVD and LPE Homo, Hetero, Stacked ,Multijunction, Tandem Junction and PEC possible Efficiencies : Homo (23.3%), AlGaAs/Si (26.9%), AlGaAs/GaSb Tandem (32.6%), GaAs/InGaP (30%), Stacked InGaAs and InGap (33%) Junction Formation Straightforward Various types of junctions possible Suitable for stacked cell application Stable Cell. Good for high temperature applications Expensive materials and processing Limited Laboratory batch size production for specialized applications
Stability , Empirical Processing and understanding Low Efficiency, Excitonic Transport and Charge Transfer Processes not well understood Encapsulation problems
Transparent anode
1 Photon absorption
3 Exciton diffusion
5 Holes transport
D-A interface
Cathode
5 Electron transport
Cathode
.
Al LiF
+ -
h?
Multiple Junction and Tandem cells (feasible and useful) Graded bandgap cells (feasible but complicated) Quantum Well & Q-Dot structured cells ( feasible on
small area cells)
Hot electron cells ( questionable) Multi-carrier generation cells (possible by using inverse
Auger Effect,impact ionization ,field emission if e-ph interaction can be controlled which is the main limitation today )
Surface Plasmons
Scattering Increase in EM field near particle (Near Field Effect) Direct electron emission from metal nanoparticles Increase in Photonic Mode Density near the particles
Scattering: The light hitting the solar cell excites a surface plasmon on the metal nanoparticle, which then re-radiates most of its energy into the silicon in such a way that the light is trapped inside the cell. Increase in EM field near particle (Near Field Effect): The strong interaction between light and metal nanoparticles also leads to increases in the electromagnetic field around the particles. The particles effectively concentrate the light into small regions. If a semiconductor is close to or surrounding the metal particles, this will increase the light absorbed by the semiconductor in that region. Courtesy: Dr Vamsi
Plasmonic Nanostructure as AR coating(size and shape dependent) Surface Plasma Polaritons Localised Surface Plasmons Nano-imprinted Back Reflector Textured Back Electrode Nano-dome ,Nano-moth eye graded index AR structures Integrated Diffraction &Light Coupled Grating (Limited feasibility for small area applications)
Optical Absorption of Thin Discontinous Silver Films (Source : Thin Film Phenomena)
SPR position depends on material and size and shape of Islands or Q-dots
Concluding Remarks
1. Hybridized micro- and nano-crystalline and aa-Si:H silicon thin films technologies with efficiencies ~ 10-12% have started competing with mulicrystalline silicon wafer technology . 2. a-Si:H PV technology will continue at a limited level and will cater to portable small/medium power and other photo-electronic application.
3. Both vapour deposited and screen printed , thin film solar cells on flexible and hard substrates, based on CIGS and CdTe films have reached MW scale production with claimed module efficiencies ~ 12-15% at a production cost of about $1/watt . 4.CdTe and CIGS based solar cells have only short range prospects. Only cells based on abundant,cheap and green materials such as Cu ans Fe will have a brighter future. Research on binary or at most tertiary Cu based cells hold the future key.Stabilized CuxS and CuxO thin films need a serious re-visit
5. Small area hybridised/ hybrized organic - inorganic thin film with efficiencies up to 9% and Dye sensitized solid state electrochemical cells with efficiencies upto 12% are opening new vistas for Thin Film Solar Cells. 6.Economic viability and sustainabilitywill ultimately determine the successful thin film technologies. High efficiency at high cost , or low efficiency at low cost are two competing options depending on applications
The challenge for photovoltaic application (a) Separating electron-hole pairs (b) Collecting them efficiently
P1 scribe Mo sputter deposition for back contact pressure reduction CIGS absorber layer pressure adjustment Chemical bath deposition for buffer layer