Highly efficient large area (10.5%, 1376cm2) thin-film CdS/CdTe solar cell

Physics and chemistry of CdTe/CdS thin film heterojunction photovoltaic devices: fundamental and critical aspects

“…The major cost reduction for this cell comes from the development of TCO lm preparation technology, APCSS techniques to obtain the CdTe lm and a patterning technology for large-area substrates. 458 In another study, a CdTe thin lm prepared by APCSS had a large grain size and less crystal defects compared to those grown under vacuum conditions. 459 The CdTe lm deposited from a dry milled powder source on CdS lm showed a better efficiency compared to conventional sources due to the decreased Te and oxygen content in the powder aer dry-milling in air for 4 h. Milled CdTe powder is well suited for APCSS as better nucleation and a large grain size CdTe is obtained.…”

“…For a CdTe thickness of <3 mm, pinholes occur, leading to a higher leakage current with a drop in FF and V oc . 458 High quality and uniform lm thickness of the TCO, CdS and CdTe layers contribute to an efficiency of 10.5 and 8.4% for a large-area sub-module with aperture area of 1376 and 5413 cm 2 , respectively. The major cost reduction for this cell comes from the development of TCO lm preparation technology, APCSS techniques to obtain the CdTe lm and a patterning technology for large-area substrates.…”

Fabrication of large area nanorod like structured CdS photoanode for solar H2 generation using spray pyrolysis technique

“…11), indicating that there is an immense scope of utilization of SPD methodology for making efficient photoanodes. There are quite a few reports on study of large area photoanodes [34,35], where it has been reported that with an increase in the PEC active area, practically yields lowered photocurrent density [36] thereby hampering the large area applicability. Such poor performance is owing to the increased electrical resistance of the conducting substrate as well as the defects formation in the film.…”

Efficiency of Thin-Film CdS/CdTe Solar Cells

“…This success is attributable to the unique physical properties of CdTe which make it ideal for converting solar energy into useful electricity at an efficiency level comparable to traditional Si technologies, but with the use of only about 1% of the semiconductor material required by Si solar cells. To date, the record efficiencies of laboratory samples of CdS/CdTe solar cells and large-area modules are ~ 16.5 % and less than 10 %, respectively (Britt & Ferekides, 1993;Hanafusa et al, 1997;Meyers & Albright, 2000;Wu et al, 2001;Hanafusa et al, 2001;Bonnet, 2003). Thus, even the record efficiency of such type solar cells is considerable lower than the theoretical limit of 28-30% (Sze, 1981).…”