Abstract
In this work, tandem amorphous/microcrystalline silicon thin-film solar modules with low output voltage, high energy yield, low light-induced degradation, and high damp-heat reliability were successfully designed and developed. Several key technologies of passivation, transparent-conducting-oxide films, and cell and segment laser scribing were researched, developed, and introduced into the production line to enhance the performance of these low-voltage modules. A 900 kWp photovoltaic system with these low-voltage panels was installed and its performance ratio has been simulated and projected to be 92.1%, which is 20% more than the crystalline silicon and CdTe counterparts.
Highlights
Tandem amorphous/microcrystalline silicon (a-Si/μ-Si) thin-film solar modules with low output voltage have gained many attentions recently, because the high output voltage of regular modules will put a critical demand on the specifications of the associated balance of system and it could not be compatible with the low output voltage of the mainstream products of crystalline silicon wafer-based solar modules
The mismatching effects caused by the different physical characteristics of cells and segments are mostly resulted from the nonuniformity of thin films due to the spatial variation of manufacture processes on largearea substrates, especially, the transparent-conducting-oxide (TCO) films grown by the low-pressure chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD) processes in which the nonuniformity of the film thickness could be over 20%
The tandem amorphous/microcrystalline silicon thin-film solar modules are produced from the 60 MW production line of Auria Solar [1–8]
Summary
Tandem amorphous/microcrystalline silicon (a-Si/μ-Si) thin-film solar modules with low output voltage have gained many attentions recently, because the high output voltage (around 100 V) of regular modules will put a critical demand on the specifications of the associated balance of system (e.g., electrical connection cables) and it could not be compatible with the low output voltage (around 30 V) of the mainstream products of crystalline silicon wafer-based solar modules. The first technical challenge in developing the low-voltage modules will be to minimize the detrimental effects resulted from the laser scribing processes. Because of the connection arrangements of series-connected cells and parallelconnected segments, the module performance inevitably will suffer from the mismatching effects results from the different physical characteristics of individual cells and segments. Due to this mismatching effect, the output current will be Journal of Nanomaterials. How to improve the uniformity of manufacture processes and minimize the mismatching effects among cells and segments is another technical problem that needs to be resolved in order to develop the low-voltage solar modules. We will give a brief description on the developments of these key technologies and the performance of the low-voltage modules enabled by these technologies
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