Photovoltaic Technology: The Case for Thin-Film Solar Cells

The advantages and limitations of photovoltaic solar modules for energy generation are reviewed with their operation principles and physical efficiency limits. Although the main materials currently used or investigated and the associated fabrication technologies are individually described, emphasis is on silicon-based solar cells. Wafer-based crystalline silicon solar modules dominate in terms of production, but amorphous silicon solar cells have the potential to undercut costs owing, for example, to the roll- to-roll production possibilities for modules. Recent developments suggest that thin-film crystalline silicon (especially microcrystalline silicon) is becoming a prime candidate for future photovoltaics.

Energy Yield and Electricity Management of Thin-Film and Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Yannick Samuel Riesen

In the case of high photovoltaic (PV) penetration into the electricity grid, the energy produced by a PV system that is effectively used (useful energy) depends on the energy yield and on how this energy is managed to avoid detrimental effects occurring at high PV injection, e.g. during the midday peak. The overall goal of this thesis is to provide guidelines for maximizing the useful energy of a PV system by quantifying losses incurred during operation at both the solar cell device and the system levels. Solar cells are usually optimized for the standard test conditions (STC). However, the conditions are generally different during operation. This work assesses how solar cell materials and designs can be optimized to maximize the energy yield for specific operating condition. We mainly focus on thin-film silicon solar cells because of their challenging metastable behavior. The temperature dependence of the performance of thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline silicon solar cells is thus measured for different deposition parameters and cell designs. We observe that, by tuning the intrinsic layer thickness of a-Si:H cells, the cells with the best (STC) efficiency do not necessarily provide the highest energy output. We also explain the presence of a maximum in the value of the fill factor as a function of temperature. The temperature dependence study is then extended to thin-film silicon multi-junction, crystalline silicon heterojunction (SHJ) and other crystalline silicon solar cells. For thin-film silicon solar cells, spectral effects and degradation or recovery effects due to the metastable character of a-Si:H (due to the Staebler-Wronski effect) significantly impact the energy yield. Based on indoor and outdoor degradation/recovery experiments, we show that it is challenging to describe this metastability with a diode model. However, such a model with a current loss term and an additional temperature dependence for the saturation current and ideality factors accurately reproduces the current-voltage characteristics of a-Si:H solar cells over a wide range of irradiance levels and operating temperatures. On the system level, we model a PV system with local storage to evaluate several strategies to reduce the detrimental midday injection peaks. The impact of such measures on the useful energy is also investigated. We develop a simple control algorithm that minimizes the losses due to a feed-in limit and maximizes self-consumption without the need of a production forecast. We show that heat storage using a boiler or a heat pump performs as well as battery storage. In general, a feed-in limit reduces significantly peak injection but only a relatively small storage capacity is needed to reduce losses (due to this limit). Changes in tilt and orientation of modules also reduce losses resulting from feed-in limits and shrink the winter/summer production ratio by more than a factor of two. We also develop a statistical method that estimates - from loads measured every 15 min - when different electrical appliances in a household are commonly used. This model indicates that about 8% of the total load could be shifted easily to the midday period, thereby reducing the midday injection peak. Finally, we combine device and system aspects to show that varying cell technology (e.g. with different temperature response) has a limited but not negligible impact on system output.

EPFL2016

Material Development for Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Photovoltaics

Peter Joseph Fiala

The developed world is built on the fact that energy is readily available and functionally infinite. The electricity from the wall, the gas at the station, and the heat in our homes are reliable and low-cost. But this comfort is so far only possible through the combustion of fossilized carbon sources. This is not a sustainable system. Not only are these sources finite, but the long-term effects of this much combustion are catastrophic for our planet and species. Transitioning from current energy production to sustainable sources will require the development and deployment of a diverse group of technologies. Chief among these is the generation of electricity from sunlight, or photovoltaics (PV).Most modern PV is based on crystalline silicon. Silicon PV alone could be scaled to provide the necessary energy production, but this could be realized more quickly and efficiently if more advanced technologies are used. The defining metric is the cost per generated electricity. In the case of silicon, the current cost breakdown of materials, manufacturing, installation, and system costs leaves little room for further price reduction; and light-to-electricity efficiencies are near their practical limit. Of the proposed alternatives, the pairing of silicon with a thin film of lead-halide perovskite in a multijunction or "tandem" architecture is one of the most promising. This splits the solar spectrum in two, and raises the theoretical maximum efficiency from 33.3% to 45.1% based on each material better using its segment than any one material could use the full spectrum. The central goal of this thesis was therefore to advance the capability of this type of solar cell while remaining within the constraints of industrially-plausible production methods.Towards this goal, we first isolated perovskite layers to study what limits their performance. This led to improvements in the bulk material quality, the interfaces with adjacent materials, and the layer morphology. We reduced bulk disorder via balancing the annealing temperature, time, and environment. The interfaces were improved by selecting passivating materials which were compatible with our deposition methods. We further observed a complex interplay between the materials used and the environment of the annealing, which illuminated critical dependencies of device performance and gave us a more complete understanding of our material. Finally the morphology was improved via high-temperature annealing. This was enabled by a surface-binding additive which reduced the detrimental effects of such an anneal while preserving the benefits, resulting in a perovskite with less internal resistance. From there, we moved outside of the perovskite layer and developed a light scattering ZnO layer which increased the optical performance and absorption of our cells. Returning to the main goal of the thesis, the lessons learned from work on isolated perovskites were applied in tandems on textured silicon. We additionally increased the perovskite layer thickness and made the bottom-cell more robust to processing damages. Together, the result was a stabilized efficiency of 27.3%. This is better than any silicon cell to date, but work remains to achieve 30% and beyond, extend material stability, scale up the deposition area, and transfer these capabilities to industry. Together, the work done as a part of this thesis represents a step forward in the journey towards carbon-neutral energy production.

EPFL2022

Computational Modeling of Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells and Modules

Thomas Andreas Lanz

Solar photovoltaic energy production relies on the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity. Silicon thin-film solar cells represent a reliable and environmentally friendly technology to make photovoltaics economically viable. As these solar cells do not contain any rare or toxic materials they are an ideal candidate for the large scale deployment of solar energy. At the same time photovoltaic energy production is ideal for off-grid, stand-alone installations. This thesis presents new methods and results on computational engineering of thin-film silicon solar cells and modules. Computational engineering employs numerical methods and simulation techniques to address engineering challenges. Predictive numerical simulations allow for device optimizations that otherwise require substantial experimental effort and they may lead to new insights into the device physics which is the basis for further improvements in terms of cell efficiency and lifetime. We discuss the development of two new simulation methods and present several case studies that illustrate their use in solar cell characterization and optimization. The first presented method addresses optical simulations, i.e. the interaction of the solar cell with sunlight. Our optical model is based on the net-radiation method that considers incoherent, ray-like propagation of light. We extend the net-radiation method with thin-film optics to allow for arbitrary sequences of thick and thin layers. Experimentally, advanced techniques such as optimized surface textures have been developed to increase the absorption in the solar cell and thereby to increase the produced current. We illustrate how our optical model takes into account these textures by means of azimuth integrated light scattering properties to formulate a computationally efficient model of light propagation within the solar cell. Our optical model thus integrates coherent and incoherent propagation of light as well as a non-iterative treatment of ligth scattering. It bridges the gap between wave and ray optics that alternative approaches are most often facing. We first apply the method to study a recently proposed rear electrode architecture based on lithium fluoride and aluminum in amorphous silicon solar cells. Our model-based optical analysis identifies the increased reflectivity of this back electrode as its main advantage. Secondly, we then explore the potential performance gains in microcrystalline silicon solar cells that can be reached by eliminating absorption in layers that do not contribute to the photogeneration of solar cell current. Finally, our optical model is also suited for other solar cell technologies and we illustrate its extension and application to light extraction calculations in light emitting diodes (LEDs). Our optical model has been incorporated into the software package setfos, commercialized by Fluxim Inc. It is thus available to the research community. We then turn to address large area solar modules. A new method based on the finite element method (FEM) is presented to calculate the electrical charge and heat transport in these devices and how it is influenced by defects as well as partial shading. We identify such defects with surface temperature measurements by means of lock-in thermography and demonstrate how our model accounts for the thermal signature of localized defects. Taking into account the large aspect ratio of thin-film solar modules we show how geometrical projections can be used to reduce the model complexity, leading to a numerically efficient approach based on the finite element method. We demonstrate this by presenting full current-voltage curves of solar modules under partial shading.

EPFL2013