Efficiency loss prevention in monolithically integrated thin film solar cells by improved front contact

Modeling indicates a potential efficiency boost of 17% if thin-film solar panels are featured with a metallic grid. Variations of transparent conductive oxide sheet resistance, cell length, and grid dimensions are discussed. These parameters were optimized simultaneously to obtain the best result. Moreover, the power output as a function of...

Routes to increasing efficiency and reducing the cost of thin-film solar panels

Most development work in the laboratory is dedicated to efficiency enhancements at the cell level; improvements in efficiency can lead to higher cost-competitiveness of PV. However, the cost of panel manufacturing is an important aspect as well. For CIGS panels the deposition of the active layer is an important part of the cost, and decreasing...

Optimized grid design for thin film solar panels

There is a gap in efficiency between record thin film cells and mass produced thin film solar panels. In this paper we quantify the effect of monolithic integration on power output for various configurations by modeling and present metallization as a way to improve efficiency of solar panels. Grid design and finger dimension optimization was...

Overview of transparent conductors and demonstrated improvement strategy using metallic grids

Low resistive trasparent conductors with metallic grids: Modeling and experiments

At present, transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are still superior in performance to most other transparent conductors. Results on opto-electronic modeling and design optimization of TCOs are presented using a monolithically integrated CIGS cell configuration as case. For various cell dimensions and TCO characteristics, the cell output was...

Metallic grids for low resistive transparent conductors: Modeling and experiments

At present, transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are still superior in performance to most other transparent conductors. Results on opto-electronic modeling and design optimization of TCOs are presented using a monolithically integrated CIGS cell configuration as case. For various cell dimensions and TCO characteristics, the cell output was...

Transparent conducting materials: Overview and recent results

An overview of different transparent conductors is given. In addition, atmospheric pressure CVD of ZnO resulted in conductivities below 1 mΩ cm for a temperature of 480°C, whereas at a process temperature of 200°C a value of 2 mΩ cm was obtained. Also atmospheric pressure spatial ALD was used to make conductive ZnO. Furthermore, the properties...