Lab-scale manufacturing of medium-sized N.I.C.E.™ modules with high-efficiency bifacial silicon heterojunction solar cells

Abstract

One promising PV module technology in terms of reducing expensive consumables while keeping the performance on a high level is the N.I.C.E.™ (New Industrial Solar Cell Encapsulation) module technology from Apollon Solar that is based on mechanical pressing contacts. In this paper, we investigate the question if the N.I.C.E.™ module technology is well suited for temperature-sensitive silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells. We present challenges encountered during the ramp-up of our lab-scale manufacturing from 1x1 to 3x4 modules. In the experimental study, we used SHJ cells with different front metal pastes and could demonstrate the high performance of N.I.C.E.™ technology irrespective of the type of paste. Record aperture area module efficiencies of 20.6% are achieved and the LIV parameters are modeled via SunSolve™ simulations. We derive from our investigations that this eco-friendly, recyclable technology is well competitive to standard laminate-based module technology.The original version of this article supplied to AIP Publishing excluded the acknowledgement section. The missing acknowledgment can be found below:The Funding was provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) nder funding No. ZF4384205 ZG8.This acknowledgment was added on 2 April 2021.