Charged oxide inversion layer (COIL) solar cells

光伏(PV)太阳能电池现在产生了世界上相当大比例的电力，并具有巨大的进一步增长潜力。光伏发电对英国非常重要，目前英国的光伏发电装机容量为13.5千兆瓦，预计未来30年全球光伏发电的增长将超过10倍。超过90%的太阳能电池是由晶硅生产的，成本已经降到了以前认为不可能的水平(&lt；2.34美分/千瓦时)。其他技术尚未获得产业吸引力，进入的商业壁垒正在变得巨大。因此，硅基太阳能技术很可能在未来几十年继续占据主导地位，对可再生能源的扩张至关重要。它的不断发展对于加快全球绿色发电的接受和影响以及履行英国在《巴黎协定》下的义务至关重要。钝化发射极和后部电池(PERC)架构是当今硅太阳能电池的标准架构。PERC技术将在未来10年达到其实用极限，最高预测商业效率为~24%。要克服这一效率边界，需要绕过PERC限制的电池架构。该项目旨在开发一种新的电池技术来取代PERC，在这种技术中，避免了高温处理的缺点，充分发挥了单结的效率潜力，并有可能直接实现串联和两面结构。该项目汇集了牛津大学和华威大学的团队，他们在硅表面钝化、载流子寿命和杂质管理方面拥有世界领先的专业知识，用于开发光伏器件。其目的是进行必要的基础工作，以促进光伏发电每瓦特成本的逐步降低，从而在这一重要的可再生能源行业的发展中产生颠覆性的变化。该项目将开发一种带电氧化物反转层(COIL)太阳能电池，通过集成先进的纳米级薄膜材料来增强硅吸收体的光伏电位。这种新颖的电池架构有可能超过目前的标准PERC器件，同时为新兴的选择性接触、串联和双面设计提供了一条直接的途径。到目前为止，反转层架构的效率仅在有限的范围内被利用，例如在18%的单元中。线圈单元的电势远远超出了这个标记，在单结配置中可以实现高达28%的电势。该项目将提供释放这一潜力所需的基本理解，通过设计高带电介质薄膜来利用反相层概念，并使用这些薄膜来生产原型电池设备。

Photovoltaic (PV) solar cells now generate a significant proportion of the world's electricity and have vast potential for further growth. PV is enormously important to the UK with >13.5 GW now installed here, and growth worldwide is forecast to be over tenfold in the next three decades. More than 90% of solar cells are produced from crystalline silicon, and costs have fallen to levels not previously thought possible (< 2.34 US cents/kWh). Other technologies have yet to gain industrial traction and commercial barriers to entry are becoming substantial. Silicon-based solar technology is hence likely to remain dominant and critical to the expansion of renewable energy in the coming decades. Its continuous advancement is essential to accelerate uptake of and impact from green electricity generation worldwide and for fulfilling the UK's obligations under the Paris Agreement. The passivated emitter and rear cells (PERC) architecture is standard for today's silicon solar cells. The PERC technology will reach its practical limits in the next 10 years, with a top forecast commercial efficiency of ~24%. Overcoming this efficiency boundary requires cell architectures that circumvent the limitations of PERC. This project aims to develop a new cell technology to supersede PERC in which the drawbacks of high temperature processing are avoided, the efficiency potential of a single junction is fully exploited, and a route to implement tandem and bifacial architectures is directly possible. This programme brings together teams at the Universities of Oxford and Warwick with world-leading expertise in silicon surface passivation, carrier lifetime, and impurity management for the development of PV devices. The aim is to conduct fundamental work necessary to facilitate a step-reduction in the cost per Watt of PV electricity, thus producing a disruptive change in the advancement of this important renewable energy industry. This project will develop a charged oxide inversion layer (COIL) solar cell by integrating advanced nanoscale thin-film materials to augment the PV potential of a silicon absorber. This novel cell architecture has the potential to overtake the current standard PERC devices, while providing a direct route to use in emerging selective contact, tandem, and bifacial designs. So far, the efficiency of an inversion layer architecture has been exploited only to a limited extent, e.g. in a 18% cell. The potential of the COIL cell extends well beyond this mark, and as high as 28% in a single-junction configuration could be achieved. This project will deliver the fundamental understanding necessary to unlock this potential, exploit the inversion layer concept by engineering highly charged dielectric thin-films, and use these films to produce a prototype cell device.