Minimizing the Carrier Collection Loss of the Neutral‐Color Transparent Crystalline‐silicon Solar Modules via Hybrid Electrode Design

Abstract

Transparent solar cells can be used where conventional solar cells are inapplicable, such as, in glass windows of buildings; however, reports on modularization, which is essential for their commercialization, are scarce. Here, a novel modularization method has been proposed for the fabrication of transparent solar cells and a 100‐cm2 neutral‐color transparent crystalline‐silicon solar module has been developed using a hybrid electrode comprising a microgrid electrode and an edge busbar electrode. The transparent solar module exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 11.94 and 13.14% when connected in series and in parallel, respectively, with an average visible transmittance of 20%. Additionally, the module exhibits negligible losses in PCE (lower than 0.23%) in outdoor, mechanical‐load, and damp‐heat (at 85°C/85% RH) stability tests, indicating high stability. The transparent solar module proposes here could facilitate the commercialization of transparent solar cells.

Deep metal-assisted chemical etching using a porous monolithic AgAu layer to develop neutral-colored transparent silicon photovoltaics

“…4b and S16†), which is comparable to the previous report. 11–13 To evaluate photovoltaic characteristics, the current density–voltage ( J – V ) curve was obtained under AM 1.5G illumination (Fig. 4c and Table 1).…”

“…The 10 nm-thick Al 2 O 3 film was deposited on the transparent c-Si to minimize surface recombination. 11–13 The minority carrier lifetime of transparent c-Si fabricated by DRIE was 61.1 μs. By contrast, the transparent c-Si fabricated by MACE-A exhibited a carrier lifetime of 133.5 μs, over two times greater than that of the DRIE-fabricated sample.…”

“…3–10 However, the Seo group recently developed neutral-colored crystalline silicon-based TPV (c-Si TPV) with a high PCE and long-term stability. 11–13 For c-Si TPV, microhole-shaped light transmission windows (LTWs) were fabricated via deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) on bare crystalline silicon (c-Si), resulting in transmittance of all visible wavelengths (350–750 nm). Moreover, the spacing between LTWs was precisely controlled, so that it was unrecognizable to the human eye and had a similar appearance to the neutral-colored glass.…”

Wet-etching fabrication of flexible and transparent silicon frameworks for imperceptible wearable electronics

“…For example, efficient and transparent solar cells based on sc-SiFs with a transparency of 20% and an energy conversion efficiency of up to 14.5% have been reported. 42–44 Our group has prepared high-performance sc-SiF-based flexible and transparent photodetectors, which exhibit a record response speed, high responsivity, and high specific detectivity. 41 Despite this progress, the reported sc-SiFs were fabricated through dry etching, which requires specialized and expensive equipment, and the etching area is limited in one experiment.…”