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Experimental verification of upgraded metallurgical silicon photovoltaic power plant

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Abstract

The upgraded metallurgical silicon (UMG-Si) purified by a metallurgical process route directly is more energy efficient than the conventional Siemens process, but high metallic impurities are the cause of a large fraction of the total recombination events in solar cells made from UMG-Si. The efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells made by such materials is lower than that from a chemical route, and UMG solar cells have big light-induced degradation. So, there always exist debates about using the upgraded metallurgical silicon for photovoltaic. In this paper, the impurity contents of silicon samples obtained in different stages were investigated, and a four-year verification of the largest UMG photovoltaic power plant in the world was conducted for the first time. The reliability, operating performance, and defects of UMG photovoltaic power plant were analyzed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the support of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61274050 and 61376067). This study was also supported by the Bureau of Science and Technology (2013k11-02 and CXY1347(6)).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Solar Energy, MOE Key Laboratory for Nonequilibrim Synthese and Modulation of Condensed Matter, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, People’s Republic of China

    Hong Yang & He Wang

  2. Ningxia Yinxing Energy Co., Ltd, Yinchuan, 750021, People’s Republic of China

    Haidong Wang & Jiye Ding

Authors
  1. Hong Yang
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  2. He Wang
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  3. Haidong Wang
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  4. Jiye Ding
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Correspondence to He Wang.

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Yang, H., Wang, H., Wang, H. et al. Experimental verification of upgraded metallurgical silicon photovoltaic power plant. Clean Techn Environ Policy 17, 281–285 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-014-0786-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-014-0786-8

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