Commercial high-efficiency silicon solar cells

Abstract

In comparison to the standard silicon solar cells the power output per unit area could be significantly increased by three different high efficiency processing sequences developed during the last decades and already commercialized. These cell types, based on mono-crystalline silicon, include (i) the solar cell of Sun Power with point contacts on the rear side, (ii) the HIT cell of Sanyo characterized by a c-Si/a-Si heterojunction and (iii) the laser-grooved buried-contact (LGBC) cell of BP Solar. Peak cell efficiencies well above 22% could be obtained. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.