Smart Grid

Assignment

Thin Film Solar Cells

Submitted By:
Utkarsh Singh 53
Varun Agrawal 54
Vineet Kumar 55
Vipin Kumar 56
EE – 4th Year
 Thin Film Solar Cells

A thin-film solar cell is a second generation solar cell that is made by depositing
one or more thin layers, or thin film (TF) of photovoltaic material on a substrate,
such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are commercially used in
several technologies, including cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium
diselenide (CIGS), and amorphous thin-film silicon (a-Si, TF-Si).
Film thickness varies from a few nanometers (nm) to tens of micrometers (µm),
much thinner than thin-film's rival technology, the conventional, first-
generation crystalline silicon solar cell (c-Si), that uses wafers of up to 200 µm
thick. This allows thin film cells to be flexible, and lower in weight. It is used
in building integrated photovoltaics and as semi-transparent, photovoltaic glazing
material that can be laminated onto windows. Other commercial applications use
rigid thin film solar panels (sandwiched between two panes of glass) in some of
the world's largest photovoltaic power stations.
Thin-film technology has always been cheaper but less efficient than conventional
c-Si technology. However, it has significantly improved over the years. The lab
cell efficiency for CdTe and CIGS is now beyond 21 percent,
outperforming multicrystalline silicon, the dominant material currently used in
most solar PV systems. Accelerated life testing of thin film modules under
laboratory conditions measured a somewhat faster degradation compared to
conventional PV, while a lifetime of 20 years or more is generally
expected. Despite these enhancements, market-share of thin-film never reached
more than 20 percent in the last two decades and has been declining in recent years
to about 9 percent of worldwide photovoltaic installations in 2013.
Other thin-film technologies that are still in an early stage of ongoing research or
with limited commercial availability are often classified as emerging or third
generation photovoltaic cells and include organic, and dye-sensitized, as well
as quantum dot, copper zinc tin sulfide, nanocrystal, micromorph, and perovskite
solar cells.

Materials used:
Thin-film technologies reduce the amount of active material in a cell. Most
sandwich active material between two panes of glass. Since silicon solar panels
only use one pane of glass, thin film panels are approximately twice as heavy as
crystalline silicon panels, although they have a smaller ecological impact
(determined from life cycle analysis). The majority of film panels have 2-3
percentage points lower conversion efficiencies than crystalline silicon. Cadmium
telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) and amorphous
silicon (a-Si) are three thin-film technologies often used for outdoor applications.
Cadmium Telluride
Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is the predominant thin film technology. With about 5
percent of worldwide PV production, it accounts for more than half of the thin film
market. The cell's lab efficiency has also increased significantly in recent years and
is on a par with CIGS thin film and close to the efficiency of multi-crystalline
silicon as of 2013. Also, CdTe has the lowest Energy payback time of all mass-
produced PV technologies, and can be as short as eight months in favorable
locations. A prominent manufacturer is the US-company First Solar based
in Tempe, Arizona, that produces CdTe-panels with an efficiency of about 14
percent at a reported cost of $0.59 per watt.
Although the toxicity of cadmium may not be that much of an issue and
environmental concerns completely resolved with the recycling of CdTe modules
at the end of their life time, there are still uncertainties and the public opinion is
skeptical towards this technology. The usage of rare materials may also become a
limiting factor to the industrial scalability of CdTe thin film technology. The rarity
of tellurium—of which telluride is the anionic form—is comparable to that of
platinum in the earth's crust and contributes significantly to the module's cost.
Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS)
A copper indium gallium selenide solar cell or CIGS cell uses an absorber made
of copper, indium, gallium, selenide (CIGS), while gallium-free variants of the
semiconductor material are abbreviated CIS. It is one of three mainstream thin-film
technologies, the other two being cadmium telluride and amorphous silicon, with a
lab-efficiency above 20 percent and a share of 2 percent in the overall PV market
in 2013. A prominent manufacturer of cylindrical CIGS-panels was the now-
bankrupt company Solyndra in Fremont, California. Traditional methods of
fabrication involve vacuum processes including co-evaporation and sputtering. In
2008, IBMand Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd. (TOK) announced they had
developed a new, non-vacuum, solution-based manufacturing process for CIGS
cells and are aiming for efficiencies of 15% and beyond.
Hyperspectral imaging has been used to characterize these cells. Researchers from
IRDEP (Institute of Research and Development in Photovoltaic Energy) in
collaboration with Photon etc.¸ were able to determine the splitting of the quasi-
Fermi level with photoluminescence mapping while the electroluminescence data
were used to derive the external quantum efficiency (EQE). Also, through a light
beam induced current (LBIC) cartography experiment, the EQE of a
microcrystalline CIGS solar cell could be determined at any point in the field of
view.
As of September 2014, current conversion efficiency record for a laboratory CIGS
cell stands at 21.7%.
Silicon
Three major silicon-based module designs dominate:
1. amorphous silicon cells
2. amorphous / microcrystalline tandem cells (micromorph)
3. thin-film polycrystalline silicon on glass.
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is a non-crystalline, allotropic form of silicon and the
most well-developed thin film technology to-date. Thin-film silicon is an
alternative to conventional wafer (or bulk) crystalline silicon. While chalcogenide-
based CdTe and CIS thin films cells have been developed in the lab with great
success, there is still industry interest in silicon-based thin film cells. Silicon-based
devices exhibit fewer problems than their CdTe and CIS counterparts such as
toxicity and humidity issues with CdTe cells and low manufacturing yields of CIS
due to material complexity. Additionally, due to political resistance to the use non-
"green" materials in solar energy production, there is no stigma in the use of
standard silicon.

Efficiency:
Incremental improvements in efficiency began with the invention of the first
modern silicon solar cell in 1954. By 2010 these steady improvements had resulted
in modules capable of converting 12 to 18 percent of solar radiation into
electricity. The improvements to efficiency have continued to accelerate in the
years since 2010, as shown in the accompanying chart.
Cells made from newer materials tend to be less efficient than bulk silicon, but are
less expensive to produce. Their quantum efficiency is also lower due to reduced
number of collected charge carriers per incident photon.
The performance and potential of thin-film materials are high,
reaching cell efficiencies of 12–20%; prototype module efficiencies of 7–13%; and
production modules in the range of 9%. The thin film cell prototype with the best
efficiency yields 20.4% (First Solar), comparable to the best conventional solar cell
prototype efficiency of 25.6% from Panasonic.
A new record for thin film solar cell efficiency of 22.3% has been achieved
by solar frontier the world's largest cis solar energy provider. In joint research with
the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of
Japan, Solar Frontier achieved 22.3% conversion efficiency on a 0.5 cm2 cell using
its CIS technology. This is an increase of 0.6 percentage points over the industry's
previous thin-film record of 21.7%.

Absorption:
Multiple techniques have been employed to increase the amount of light that enters
the cell and reduce the amount that escapes without absorption. The most obvious
technique is to minimizing the top contact coverage of the cell surface, reducing
the area that blocks light from reaching the cell.
The weakly absorbed long wavelength light can be obliquely coupled into silicon
and traverses the film several times to enhance absorption.
Multiple methods have been developed to increase absorption by reducing the
number of incident photons being reflected away from the cell surface. An
additional anti-reflective coating can cause destructive interference within the cell
by modulating the refractive index of the surface coating. Destructive interference
eliminates the reflective wave, causing all incident light to enter the cell.
Surface texturing is another option for increasing absorption, but increases costs.
By applying a texture to the active material's surface, the reflected light can be
refracted into striking the surface again, thus reducing reflectance. For example,
black silicon texturing by reactive ion etching(RIE) is an effective and economic
approach to increase the absorption of thin-film silicon solar cells. A textured back
reflector can prevent light from escaping through the rear of the cell.

Production Cost & Market:

With the advances in conventional crystalline silicon (c-Si) technology in recent
years, and the falling cost of the polysilicon feedstock, that followed after a period
of severe global shortage, pressure increased on manufacturers of commercial thin-
film technologies, including amorphous thin-film silicon (a-Si), cadmium telluride
(CdTe), and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), leading to the bankruptcy
of several companies. As of 2013, thin-film manufacturers continue to face price
competition from Chinese refiners of silicon and manufacturers of conventional c-
Si solar panels. Some companies together with their patents were sold to Chinese
firms below cost.