Advanced concepts for crystalline Silicon technology

Photovoltaic power generation is pivotal in the transition to a clean energy system and the achievement of a climate-neutral economy. To this end, it is important to enhance affordability, security of supply and sustainability of PV technologies along with further efficiency improvements.

Consequently, project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• PV modules with higher efficiencies and lower costs, paving the way for mass production.
• Lower environmental impact with efficient and optimised use of materials/resources.

Wafer-based crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV technology is dominating the PV market, sharing its 95%, with a significant historical module price reduction trend. The driving force for such PV cost reduction is undoubtedly attributed to the advancement in cell and module performance in the last few decades, in addition to economies of scale. Improving cell and module efficiency will continue to play a significant role in lowering the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), by saving the cost of land and balance of systems while producing the same amount of electricity.

Proposals are expected to develop architectures approaching the theoretical efficiency limit of c-Si cells and providing the direction for even higher mass-production industrial cell performance (for example by reducing surface recombination in silicon, lowering recombination losses at metal contacts, maximizing light trapping in silicon, etc.), with:

1. Nanophotonic structures to maximize absorption and minimise reflection, enabling reduced silicon consumption and higher efficiencies.
2. Innovative texturisation and light-trapping concepts for thin and ultrathin c-Si solar cells.
3. Advanced low-cost surface passivation and novel passivating contacts; novel heterojunctions.
4. Low-cost and Ag-free metallisation, TCOs using abundant materials (In-free), such as AZO.
5. Direct bandgap architectures for very high efficiencies and/or thinner cells.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 4-5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.