薄膜太阳能电池前景

光伏产业已成为我国可再生能源产业中继风力发电之后发展最快的产业,光伏发电技术也是全球研究的热点之一。在薄膜太阳能光伏电池的优势和现有薄膜PV基础上,分析了薄膜光伏技术进入商业化的问题所在,探索了薄膜太阳能电池的应用及产能潜势,展望了α—Si与CdTe薄膜光伏产业前景。     

太阳能光伏电池及其气相沉积技术研究进展

对太阳能光伏电池的发展现状进行了综述,重点论述了气相沉积技术及其在非晶硅、CIGS等薄膜太阳电池薄膜制备中的应用,并对气相沉积技术及太阳能光伏电池的发展前景进行了展望。     

激光技术新进展及其在光伏产业中的应用

自从1960年世界上第一台红宝石激光器问世以来,激光技术有了很大的发展,已经从实验室走向应用。激光技术的一些新进展包括:光学设备和材料,从中红外到紫外波段新材料;激光应用中的新型激光源、光纤传感、激光冷却、激光加工;光伏技术:薄膜电池、有机光伏电池、高效光伏电池。重点介绍了以透明陶瓷为代表的新型激光材料,以光纤激光为代表的新型激光器结构,以掺铥光纤激光器为代表的中红外激光器;并介绍了激光技术在光伏太阳能产业中的应用。     

光伏走进薄膜时代？

晶体硅和薄膜太阳能光伏电池是现在乃至未来十年的两大主要技术阵营,晶体硅太阳能电池以高转化效率在过去和现在都主导着光伏市场。而薄膜电池在原有转化效率上突破性的进展以及相对低廉的成本在近两年吸引了投资者更多的关注,处于其急速发展期。     

薄膜太阳能电池的研究进展

薄膜太阳能电池是缓解能源危机的新型光伏器件。评述了薄膜太阳能电池的优缺点,主要介绍了薄膜硅太阳能电池、多元化合物薄膜太阳能电池和有机薄膜太阳能电池的研究现状,总结了它们各自在价格成本、光电转换效率及对环境影响等方面的特点,并对其发展趋势进行了展望。     

薄膜光伏组件在不同光谱分布下的测试差异

本文测试了非晶硅、碲化镉、铜铟镓硒和钙钛矿四种薄膜光伏组件的光谱响应曲线,选择单晶硅电池作为参考电池的光谱响应,利用两种太阳模拟器的光谱分布计算它们在不同光谱分布下的光谱失配情况,对比了不同光谱分布对这四种薄膜光伏组件测试结果的影响,从光谱失配角度给出了减小薄膜光伏组件测试误差的建议。     

晶体硅太阳能电池的光伏特性研究

太阳能光伏技术是把太阳的光能转换成电能的主要方式。目前主要的太阳能光伏转换器件有硅太阳能电池,砷化镓太阳电池,燃料敏华太阳电池和薄膜太阳电池等。其中,硅太阳电池是主要技术。对光伏电池输出特性进行深入广泛的研究具有重要意义。在分析太阳能光伏发电的基本原理基础上,研究了太阳能电池的I-V特性、照度特性,然后对光伏实验系统进行了相关的测试。     

新浦东崛起光伏产业高地

日前,总投资11．95亿元、占地123亩的上海曙海太阳能有限公司光伏项目落户新浦东的南汇工业园区,将生产具有自主知识产权和国际先进水平的非晶硅薄膜太阳能电池生产线及其光伏电池组件。     

薄膜太阳能电池研究进展

薄膜太阳能电池是有效利用新能源的新型光伏器件。本文综述了硅基类、化合物类以及染料敏化三种薄膜太阳能电池研究现状,并展望了未来的发展前景。     

新型光伏电池技术在电力系统中的应用研究

文章采用了文献研究方法,通过对现有研究成果进行综合分析,旨在探讨新型光伏电池技术在电力系统中的应用。综合分析表明,新型光伏电池技术在电力系统中具有广阔的应用前景。它可以提高电力系统的效率、可靠性和经济性,推动可再生能源的发展和清洁能源转型。进一步的研究和创新有助于解决新型光伏电池技术面临的挑战,推动其商业化和广泛应用。     

A novel analytical model for determining the maximum power point of thin film photovoltaic module

Achieving the maximum power output from photovoltaic (PV) modules is indispensable for the operation of grid‐connected PV power systems under varied atmospheric conditions. In recent years, the study of PV energy for different applications has attracted more and more attention because solar energy is clean and renewable. We propose an efficient direct‐prediction method to enhance the utilization efficiency of thin film PV modules by tackling the problem of tracking time and overcoming the difficulty of calculation. The proposed method is based on the p–n junction recombination mechanism and can be applied to all kinds of PV modules. Its performance is not influenced by weather conditions such as illumination or temperature. The experimental results show that the proposed method provides high‐accuracy estimation of the maximum power point (MPP) for thin film PV modules with an average error of 1.68% and 1.65% under various irradiation intensities and temperatures, respectively. The experimental results confirm that the proposed method can simply and accurately estimate the MPP for thin film PV modules under various irradiation intensities and temperatures. In future, the proposed method will be used to shed light on the optimization of the MPP tracking control model in PV systems. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thin Film Silicon Photovoltaic Cells on Paper for Flexible Indoor Applications

The present development of non‐wafer‐based photovoltaics (PV) allows supporting thin film solar cells on a wide variety of low‐cost recyclable and flexible substrates such as paper, thereby extending PV to a broad range of consumer‐oriented disposable applications where autonomous energy harvesting is a bottleneck issue. However, their fibrous structure makes it challenging to fabricate good‐performing inorganic PV devices on such substrates. The advances presented here demonstrate the viability of fabricating thin film silicon PV cells on paper coated with a hydrophilic mesoporous layer. Such layer can not only withstand the cells production temperature (150 °C), but also provide adequate paper sealing and surface finishing for the cell's layers deposition. The substances released from the paper substrate are continuously monitored during the cell deposition by mass spectrometry, which allows adapting the procedures to mitigate any contamination from the substrate. In this way, a proof‐of‐concept solar cell with 3.4% cell efficiency (41% fill factor, 0.82 V open‐circuit voltage and 10.2 mA cm^?2 short‐circuit current density) is attained, opening the door to the use of paper as a reliable substrate to fabricate inorganic PV cells for a plethora of indoor applications with tremendous impact in multi‐sectorial fields such as food, pharmacy and security.     

Ex‐ante environmental and economic evaluation of polymer photovoltaics

The use of polymer materials for photovoltaic applications is expected to have several advantages over current crystalline silicon technology. In this paper, we perform an environmental and economic assessment of polymer‐based thin film modules with a glass substrate and modules with a flexible substrate and we compare our results with literature data for multicrystalline (mc‐) silicon photovoltaics and other types of PV. The functional unit of this study is ‘25 years of electricity production by PV systems with a power of 1 watt‐peak (W_p)’. Because the lifetime of polymer photovoltaics is at present much lower than of mc‐silicon photovoltaics, we first compared the PV cells per watt‐peak and next determined the minimum required lifetime of polymer PV to arrive at the same environmental impacts as mc‐silicon PV. We found that per watt‐peak of output power, the environmental impacts compared to mc‐silicon are 20–60% lower for polymer PV systems with glass substrate and 80–95% lower for polymer PV with PET as substrate (flexible modules). Also in comparison with thin film CuInSe and thin film silicon, the impacts of polymer modules, per watt‐peak, appeared to be lower. The costs per watt‐peak of polymer PV modules with glass substrate are approximately 20% higher compared to mc‐silicon photovoltaics. However, taking into account uncertainties, this might be an overestimation. For flexible modules, no cost data were available. If the efficiency and lifetime of polymer PV modules increases, both glass‐based and flexible polymer PV could become an environment friendly and cheap alternative to mc‐silicon PV. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A system dynamics model of tellurium availability for CdTe PV

The routine availability of key component materials has been highlighted as a potential constraint to both extensive deployment and reduction in production costs of thin‐film photovoltaic (PV) technologies. This paper examines the effect of material availability on the maximum potential growth of thin‐film PV by 2050 using the case of tellurium (Te) in cadmium telluride (CdTe) PV, currently the dominating thin‐film technology with the lowest manufacturing cost. The use of system dynamics (SD) modelling allows for a dynamic treatment of key Te supply features and prospects for reductions in PV demand via material efficiency improvements, as well as greater transparency and a better understanding of future recycling potential. The model's projections for maximum Te‐constrained CdTe PV growth by 2050 are shown to be higher than a number of previous studies using static assumptions—suggesting that a dynamic treatment of the resource constraints for CdTe inherently improves the outlook for future deployment of this technology. In addition, the sensitivity analysis highlights certain complex correlations between the maximum potential CdTe growth by 2050 and the rated lifetime of PV modules as well as the reported size of global Te resources. The highest observed sensitivities are to the recovery rate of Te from copper anode slimes, the active layer thickness, the module efficiency and the utilisation rate of Te during manufacturing, all of which are highlighted as topics for further research. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Corrosion effects in thin‐film photovoltaic modules

Electrochemical corrosion effects can occur in thin‐film photovoltaic (PV) modules that are fabricated on tin‐oxide‐coated glass when operating at high voltages and at elevated temperatures in a humid climate. The current study shows that this corrosion is associated with a delamination of the tin oxide layer from the glass, which is caused by sodium accumulation near the interface between the tin oxide and the glass and by the ingression of moisture into the PV module from the edges. This corrosion in thin‐film PV modules can be significantly reduced by altering the growth conditions of the tin oxide or by using zinc oxide as a transparent conductive oxide electrode. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rethinking China's strategic mineral policy on indium: implication for the flat screens and photovoltaic industries

Indium is an indispensable component of many products, especially the liquid crystal displays (LCD) flat screens (FS) and thin film photovoltaic (PV) cells. China is the world's largest producer of primary indium and products containing indium. Despite this, there has been relatively little examination of the scarcity and strategic mineral policy for indium. Using a material flow analysis approach, a dynamic model has been built to quantify the indium flows, availability, and scarcity in China. The results show that China has transitioned from primarily exporting indium to primarily consuming indium. Forecasting until the year 2020, the domestic demand is led by LCD televisions and monitors (74%), followed by laptops (8%), and PV cells (5%). Accumulated use of indium in production from 2011 to 2020 could reach 7800 t, that is close to China's estimated 2008 reserves and represents three‐fourths of the world's current total reserves. Despite this, end of life (EoL) recycling is forecasted to be too insignificant to influence the indium market supply in the short term. Therefore, by the year around 2020, China could face a serious shortage of both primary production and EoL‐recovered indium to meet the production demand. From a long‐term perspective, the world's development and installation of thin‐film PV modules could be significantly threatened because indium demand within PV modules could grow rapidly over the coming decades. A promising solution to prevent an indium shortage in China is to promote the urban mining of indium from the EoL FS and PV industries. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The lamination of (multi)crystalline and thin film based photovoltaic modules

Electricity generation using photovoltaic (PV) becomes more and more important and significant research is performed in this PV arena. Although the electrical cell connection as well as the encapsulation of the PV active material are of utmost importance, these so‐called back‐end processes in the production of PV modules are often neglected. Here, we present our currently used activities to encapsulate inorganic PV materials, i.e. crystalline silicon as well as the various thin film technologies and focus on the lamination step. The importance of an exceedingly homogeneous temperature profile during the lamination step is highlighted as well as the application of various pressures in time. The control of both the temperature and pressure profile is key to produce bubble free and long‐lasting high quality PV modules. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Update of environmental indicators and energy payback time of CdTe PV systems in Europe

Thin film technologies undergo rapid developments for increasing the module efficiencies and improving production technologies or recycling processes which affect the environmental profile of PV power generation and Energy Payback Time (EPBT). Therefore, especially for the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of product systems with short development cycles, the environmental profiles need to be frequently updated to ensure the representativeness and validity of the environmental assessment. The update of LCA results in this paper demonstrates that considerable improvements were reached in the environmental profile of CdTe PV power and EPBT over the last four years. Depending on the location of installation in Europe, the corresponding Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of PV power for ground mounted power plants are between 19 and 30 g CO₂‐equiv./kWh and between 0.7 and 1.1 years in terms of EBPT. Furthermore, for the first time, the environmental impacts due to an already applied recycling procedure of CdTe modules and it's relative contribution to the CdTe PV life cycle has been investigated. This paper presents the main approach, results and outcomes of the study. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Research opportunities in polycrystalline compound solar cells

Polycrystalline photovoltaic (PV) materials show substantial promise for achieving the U.S. Department of Energy PV costs and performance goals. Cadmium telluride (CdTe) and CuInSe₂ (CIS) both have recently demonstrated device efficiencies in the 15 percent range with promise of achieving 20 percent efficiencies. Large area thin film CIS and CdTe modules in the 0.4 to 0.7 m² size have also been fabricated with aperture efficiencies approaching ten percent. In spite of these results, polycrystalline thin film materials are relatively unexplored. Fundamental research opportunities in materials for thin film solar cells can be categorized under three major headings, from the most general to the most specific: areas with long-range potentialities, areas with a larger exploratory content, and areas with specific need. Each of these issues can play a vital role in the development of improved solar cells. The discussion of research opportunities in this paper starts with the more general opportunities and works its way to the most specific ones: (i) updating the basic investigation of defect properties and compensation in Group II-VI and related materials; exploring the basic materials science of the growth process for synthesis from layers of the elements, and exploring the potentials of bandgap engineering; (ii) search for new materials, interactions between defects and grain boundaries in polycrystalline materials, and exploration of the p-i-n structure for solar cells in a more general way; and (iii) doping of and contacts to p-CdTe, junction transport and effects of heat treatments on CdTe and CuInSe₂, and development of Group II-VI ternaries.