A cost roadmap for silicon heterojunction solar cells

Abstract Research and development of silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells has seen a marked increase since the recent expiry of core patents describing SHJ technology. SHJ solar cells are expected to offer various cost benefits compared to conventional crystalline silicon solar cells. This paper analyses the production costs associated with five different SHJ cell designs, including an interdigitated back-contacted (IBC) design. Using life-cycle costing, we analyzed the current cost breakdown of these SHJ designs, and compared them to conventional diffused junction monocrystalline silicon modules. Coupling the results for current designs with literature data on technological improvements, we also present a prospective analysis of production costs for the five SHJ cells and modules. For current designs, module costs were calculated to be 0.48–0.56 USD per Watt-peak ( W p ) for SHJ modules, compared to 0.50 USD/ W p for a conventional c-Si module. The efficiency bonus for SHJ modules compared to conventional c-Si modules is offset by a strong increase in metallization costs for SHJ designs, as comparatively large amounts of low-temperature silver-paste are required. For module materials, the requirement for conductive adhesives results in a small cost penalty for SHJ modules compared to c-Si modules, which is more than balanced by the effect of higher efficiency in SHJ modules. Our prospective study showed that improvements in cell processing and module design could result in a significant drop in production costs for all module types studied. The SHJ modules gain much advantage by reducing and replacing silver consumption, increased cell efficiency and thinner wafers and have prospective production costs of 0.29–0.35  USD / W p . Conventional c-Si module cost is less sensitive to silver paste consumption, limiting the potential for cost reduction, and has prospective production costs of 0.33  USD / W p . Replacement of indium-tin-oxide was not found to contribute substantially to a reduction in module costs.

[1]  G. Francia,et al.  Process development of amorphous silicon/crystalline silicon solar cells , 1997 .

[2]  Martin A. Green,et al.  Ag requirements for silicon wafer‐based solar cells , 2011 .

[3]  N. Lewis.  Toward Cost-Effective Solar Energy Use , 2007, Science.

[4]  E. Nieuwlaar,et al.  Introduction to Energy Analysis , 2008 .

[5]  Vasilis Fthenakis,et al.  Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Thin‐film Photovoltaic Electricity Generation , 2012 .

[6]  Wilfried van Sark,et al.  Price development of photovoltaic modules, inverters, and systems in the Netherlands in 2012 , 2014 .

[7]  Hyung Chul Kim,et al.  Photovoltaics: Life-cycle Analyses , 2011 .

[8]  Willett Kempton,et al.  Cost-minimized combinations of wind power, solar power and electrochemical storage, powering the grid up to 99.9% of the time , 2013 .

[9]  H. Rechberger,et al.  Considerations of resource availability in technology development strategies: The case study of photovoltaics , 2011 .

[10]  Toshihide Kamata,et al.  Novel low-temperature-sintering type Cu-alloy pastes for silicon solar cells , 2012 .

[11]  A. Thorenz,et al.  Silver supply risk analysis for the solar sector , 2014 .

[12]  Vasilis Fthenakis,et al.  Methodology Guidelines on Life Cycle Assessment of Photovoltaic Electricity 3rd Edition , 2016 .

[13]  C. Breyer,et al.  Global overview on grid‐parity , 2013 .

[14]  Dolf Gielen,et al.  Re-considering the economics of photovoltaic power , 2013 .

[15]  Gerald Rebitzer,et al.  Methodology and application of Life Cycle costing , 2003 .

[16]  R. Gross,et al.  Materials availability for thin film (TF) PV technologies development: A real concern? , 2011 .

[17]  Hyung Chul Kim,et al.  Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Electricity Generation , 2012 .

[18]  K. Schneider.  Recent Facts about Photovoltaics in Germany , 2017 .

[19]  H. Philipsen,et al.  Large Area Copper Plated Silicon Solar Cell Exceeding 19.5% Efficiency , 2012 .

[20]  Miss A.O. Penney.  (b) , 1974, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[21]  R. Margolis,et al.  A wafer-based monocrystalline silicon photovoltaics road map: Utilizing known technology improvement opportunities for further reductions in manufacturing costs , 2013 .

[22]  L. Korte,et al.  Physics and Technology of Amorphous-Crystalline Heterostructure Silicon Solar Cells , 2012 .

[23]  Willett Kempton,et al.  Corrigendum to “Cost-minimized combinations of wind power, solar power and electrochemical storage, powering the grid up to 99.9% of the time” [J. Power Sources 225 (2013) 60–74] , 2013 .

[24]  Björn A. Andersson.  Materials availability for large-scale thin-film photovoltaics , 2000 .

[25]  K. Schulte,et al.  Comparison of new conductive adhesives based on silver and carbon nanotubes for solar cells interconnection , 2013 .

[26]  S. Reichelstein,et al.  The Prospects for Cost Competitive Solar PV Power , 2012 .

[27]  Martin Kumar Patel,et al.  Environmental and Cost Assessment of a Polypropylene Nanocomposite , 2007 .

[28]  Qi Wang,et al.  High-Efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells by HWCVD , 2006, 2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conference.

[29]  David Hunkeler,et al.  Life Cycle costing — paving the road to sustainable development? , 2003 .

[30]  C. Ballif,et al.  Record Infrared Internal Quantum Efficiency in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells With Dielectric/Metal Rear Reflectors , 2013, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

[31]  C. Ballif,et al.  High-efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Review , 2012 .

[32]  Mark Z. Jacobson,et al.  Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part II: Reliability, system and transmission costs, and policies , 2011 .

[33]  Wim Turkenburg,et al.  Greenhouse gas emissions associated with photovoltaic electricity from crystalline silicon modules under various energy supply options , 2011 .

[34]  A. Kohn,et al.  Diffusion Barriers for Ultra-Large-Scale Integrated Copper Metallization , 2009 .

[35]  K. Swift.  A comparison of the cost and financial returns for solar photovoltaic systems installed by businesses in different locations across the United States , 2013 .

[36]  Atse Louwen,et al.  Life‐cycle greenhouse gas emissions and energy payback time of current and prospective silicon heterojunction solar cell designs , 2015 .