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Reduce on the Cost of Photovoltaic Power Generation for Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Cells by Double Printing of Ag/Cu Front Contact Layer

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Abstract

With the development of photovoltaic industry, the cost of photovoltaic power generation has become the significant issue. And the metallization process has decided the cost of original materials and photovoltaic efficiency of the solar cells. Nowadays, double printing process has been introduced instead of one-step printing process for front contact of polycrystalline silicon solar cells, which can effectively improve the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells. Here, the relative cheap Cu paste has replaced the expensive Ag paste to form Ag/Cu composite front contact of silicon solar cells. The photovoltaic performance and the cost of photovoltaic power generation have been investigated. With the optimization on structure and height of Cu finger layer for Ag/Cu composite double-printed front contact, the silicon solar cells have exhibited a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 18.41%, which has reduced 3.42 cent per Watt for the cost of photovoltaic power generation.

Graphical Abstract

Partial Ag is replaced by Cu to reduce the manufacture cost of silicon solar cells. Cu-Ag double layer front contact has exhibited more excellent photovoltaic performance of silicon solar cells than that of Cu/Ag composite layer. Ag/Cu double-printed finger lines exhibits excellent photovoltaic performance, which can reduce 3.42 cent per watt for the cost of photovoltaic power generation.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51675058), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51405037), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (Grant No. 2018JJ3527), the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province (Grant No. 17C0025), the Key Scientific Research Project of the Education Department of Hunan Province (Grant No. 16A002), and the Key Laboratory of Efficient & Clean Energy Utilization, the Education Department of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2017NGQ007). Thanks for the measurements supporting from Hunan Province 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center of Clean Energy and Smart Grid.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Efficient & Clean Energy Utilization, The Education Department of Hunan Province, Hunan Province 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center of Clean Energy and Smart Grid, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, 410111, People’s Republic of China

    Zhuoyin Peng, Zhou Liu, Jianlin Chen, Lida Liao, Jian Chen, Cong Li & Wei Li

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  1. Zhuoyin Peng
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  2. Zhou Liu
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  3. Jianlin Chen
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  5. Jian Chen
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  6. Cong Li
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  7. Wei Li
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Correspondence to Zhuoyin Peng.

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Peng, Z., Liu, Z., Chen, J. et al. Reduce on the Cost of Photovoltaic Power Generation for Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Cells by Double Printing of Ag/Cu Front Contact Layer. Electron. Mater. Lett. 14, 718–724 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-018-0076-4

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