Abstract
In the photovoltaic industry, there is great interest in increasing the power output of solar cells to achieve grid parity and to promote the widespread use of solar cells. However, despite many developments, a phenomenon called light-induced degradation causes the efficiency of solar cells to deteriorate over time. This study proposes a treatment that can be applied to cells within solar modules. It uses a half-bridge resonance circuit to induce a magnetic field and selectively heat Al electrodes in the solar cells. The electrical state of a solar module was measured in real time as it was being heated, and the results were combined with a kinetics simulation using a cyclic reaction. As the temperature of the solar module increased, the time taken to reach the saturation point and the recovery time decreased. Moreover, the value of the saturation point increased. The light-induced degradation activation energy was similar to results in the existing literature, suggesting that the kinetic model was valid and applicable even when 72 cells were connected in series. This demonstrates that an entire solar module can be treated when the cells are connected in series, and in future multiple modules, could be connected in series during treatment.
Highlights
A major aim of the photovoltaic industry is to increase the power output of solar cells in order to attain grid parity and promote their widespread use
The treatment of light-induced degradation (LID) is performed by rapid thermal processing in the solar cell manufacturing stage, but the subsequent lamination process in the module manufacturing stage counteracts the treatment of LID process and returns the cells to their original initial state
We developed the technology to directly heat the cells inside the solar module by remote heating, and damage to the encapsulant was minimized as no heat was generated outside the solar cells and module frame
Summary
A major aim of the photovoltaic industry is to increase the power output of solar cells in order to attain grid parity and promote their widespread use. At present, passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) solar cells that use p-type wafers account for 82% of the global photovoltaic power market, and they expected to account for at least 50% of the market until 2031 [1]. These p-type PERC (p-PERC) solar cells generate a back surface field (BSF) using an aluminum (Al) electrode, and it is easy to control the area of the BSF via the electrode printing process. P-PERC crystalline silicon solar cells are widely used, and they can achieve a power conversion efficiency of 24.0% [3]
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