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New designs for thin film solar cells

薄膜太阳能电池的新设计

基本信息

批准号：
EP/T006188/1
负责人：
Ken Durose
金额：
$ 51.96万
依托单位：
University of Liverpool
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2020 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FT006188%2F1
关键词：
New designs thin film solar

项目摘要

To limit global warming to 2degC by 2050, renewable power generation must increase from 15 to 65% (Int Renewable Energy Association [1]), and all scenarios concur that solar photovoltaic electricity generation will play a large part in this: The International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Outlook forecasts that solar electricity production should increase from 430 Tw-h in 2017 to 6,410 Tw-h in 2040 in its 'Sustainable Scenario' [2].Solar PV (photovoltaics) is making a strong contribution, with a 24% year on year increase in sales from 2010 to 2017. This has been driven by the tumbling costs of the leading solar PV technology, wafer silicon, which has seen massive production expansion in the Far East. It accounts for 95% of the market. Costs continue to fall by about 25% for each doubling of cumulative installed capacity ('Moore's law for solar'). Low cost thin film competitors to silicon have the advantage that they use thin coatings of highly absorbing compound semiconductors rather than sliced wafers. They are big business in themselves, with a turnover of an estimated $1,000 million per annum for CdTe alone. Nevertheless, the thin film technologies must continually improve their cost/performance ratio in order to stay ahead of the ever-falling costs of wafer silicon production. For example, the largest thin film PV manufacturer worldwide, First Solar, has just doubled the size of its CdTe modules and changed its junction design in order to maintain its market position as having the lowest cost PV available. Despite the commercial success of thin film PV, there are relatively few large commercial players. One of the reasons for this is the technological risk, and the amount of know-how required to produce the solar cells. In the case of the market leader, CdTe for example, the basic design of the semiconductor p-n junction has remained unchanged for 40 yrs. However, it contains some basic materials weaknesses that cannot be overcome. In particular, the CdTe absorber is p-type so as to make it compatible with the n-type transparent electrode. For fundamental materials reasons this limits the voltage achievable, and it makes true Ohmic contacting impossible. Both of these factors act to limit the energy conversion performance of the solar cells in practice. In this programme we will design and fabricate a new type of thin film solar cell architecture that avoids these issues and has the potential for higher efficiency performance with simplified manufacturing protocols. We will use n-type CdTe absorbers, which do not suffer from either the doping limitations or contacting issues of p-type. The work programme will centre on re-designing the solar cell architecture in order to accommodate the n-type CdTe and to realize its advantages. We expect that the new design will be capable of generating open circuit voltages of 1 V compared to the 0.87 V of present day structures. This will push solar energy conversion efficiencies up to about 25%. Moreover, since the device processing and contacting will not need to rely on 'black box' processes and know how, the new design will be more producible and will present an attractive alternative to manufacturers.[1] Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2017https://www.irena.org/publications/2018/Jan/Renewable-power-generation-costs-in-2017[2] International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Outlook 'Sustainable Scenario'https://www.iea.org/weo2018/

为了到2050年将全球变暖限制在2摄氏度，可再生能源发电量必须从15%增加到65%（国际可再生能源协会bb1），所有情景都一致认为太阳能光伏发电将在其中发挥重要作用：国际能源署（IEA）《世界能源展望》预测，太阳能发电量应从2017年的430太瓦时增加到2040年的6410太瓦时，其“可持续情景”bb1。太阳能光伏（光伏）正在做出强有力的贡献，从2010年到2017年，销售额同比增长24%。这是由领先的太阳能光伏技术硅片（wafer silicon）成本大幅下降所推动的，该技术在远东地区的生产规模大幅扩大。它占据了95%的市场份额。累计装机容量每增加一倍，成本就会继续下降25%左右（“太阳能摩尔定律”）。硅的低成本薄膜竞争对手的优势在于，他们使用高吸收化合物半导体的薄涂层，而不是切片晶圆。它们本身就是一门大生意，仅CdTe每年的营业额估计就达到10亿美元。然而，薄膜技术必须不断提高其成本/性能比，以保持领先于硅片生产成本不断下降。例如，全球最大的薄膜光伏制造商第一太阳能公司（First Solar）刚刚将其CdTe组件的尺寸扩大了一倍，并改变了其结设计，以保持其作为成本最低的光伏产品的市场地位。尽管薄膜光伏在商业上取得了成功，但大型商业参与者相对较少。其中一个原因是技术风险，以及生产太阳能电池所需的专业知识。以市场领导者CdTe为例，半导体p-n结的基本设计40年来一直保持不变。然而，它包含一些无法克服的基本材料弱点。特别地，为了使其与n型透明电极兼容，将CdTe吸收器设计为p型。由于基本材料的原因，这限制了可实现的电压，并使真正的欧姆接触成为不可能。这两个因素在实际应用中都限制了太阳能电池的能量转换性能。在这个项目中，我们将设计和制造一种新型的薄膜太阳能电池结构，避免这些问题，并通过简化的制造协议具有更高的效率性能的潜力。我们将使用n型CdTe吸收剂，它既没有掺杂限制，也没有p型的接触问题。工作方案将集中于重新设计太阳能电池结构，以便容纳n型碲化镉并实现其优势。我们预计新设计将能够产生1 V的开路电压，而目前的结构为0.87 V。这将把太阳能转换效率提高到25%左右。此外，由于设备的处理和接触将不需要依赖于“黑匣子”工艺和技术，新设计将更具可生产性，并将为制造商提供一个有吸引力的替代方案2017年可再生能源发电成本[http://www.irena.org/publications/2018/Jan/Renewable-power-generation-costs-in-2017[2]]国际能源署（IEA）《世界能源展望：可持续情景》https://www.iea.org/weo2018/