Title :
Bifacial multicrystalline silicon solar cells
Author :
Warabisako, T. ; Matsukuma, K. ; Kokunai, S. ; Kida, Y. ; Uematsu, T. ; Yagi, H.
Author_Institution :
Res. Lab., Hitachi Ltd., Ibaraki, Japan
Abstract :
A bifacial solar cell structure is applied to multicrystalline substrates obtained from the OTC cast material. The double sided cathode configuration made it possible to collect photogenerated minority carriers from the nearest side of the cell, which allows the minority carrier not necessarily to travel across the substrate having short diffusion lengths. The rear cathode acts as a current booster for the front cathode for light entering from the front side, and vice versa. Because of this two fold current enhancement, cell outputs equivalent to nearly 20% efficiency are obtainable from a 15% cell when 30% albedo from the rear side is incorporated. A simplified screen printing process for cell fabrication provides a promising method of scaled production
Keywords :
albedo; carrier lifetime; cathodes; elemental semiconductors; minority carriers; semiconductor device testing; silicon; solar cells; substrates; 15 percent; 20 percent; Si; albedo; bifacial solar cell; current booster; current enhancement; diffusion length; double sided cathode; fabrication; minority carrier; multicrystalline semiconductor; photogenerated minority carriers; screen printing; substrates; Cathodes; Coatings; Electrodes; Fabrication; Laboratories; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Printing; Silicon; Yagi-Uda antennas;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1993., Conference Record of the Twenty Third IEEE
Conference_Location :
Louisville, KY
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-1220-1
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1993.347044