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A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi /10.1038/s41578-022-00510-4
The authors thank S. Joos and M. Lehman for the design of Fig. 4 and the figure in Box 2, respectively. C.B., M.B. and F.-J.H. acknowledge funding by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union within the projects Ampere under grant 745601 and Highlight under grant 857793, and by the Swiss Federal Office for Energy within the project CHESS under grant SI501253-01. G.H. acknowledges support from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.
The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Reviews Materials thanks Stefan Glunz and Martin Green for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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A record value of 29.1%: 20181212005060/en/ Alta-Devices-Sets-29.1-Solar-Efficiency-Record
International Energy Agency: https://
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DOI: https://doi /10.1038/s41578-022-00423-2
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) supports crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) research and development efforts that lead to market-ready technologies. Below is a summary of how a silicon solar module is made, recent advances in cell design, and the associated benefits.Learn how solar PV works.
A solar module—what you have probably heard of as a solar panel—is made up of several small solar cells wired together inside a protective casing. This simplified diagram shows the type of silicon cell that is most commonly manufactured.
In a silicon solar cell, a layer of silicon absorbs light, which excites charged particles called electrons. When the electrons move, they create an electric current. In a solar cell, the silicon absorber is attached to other materials, which allows electric current to flow through the absorber layer into the metal contacts and be collected as renewable electricity.Learn more about how solar cells work.
Monocrystalline silicon represented 96% of global solar shipments in 2022, making it the most common absorber material in today''s solar modules. The remaining 4% consists of other materials, mostlycadmium telluride. Monocrystalline silicon PV cells can have energy conversion efficiencies higher than 27% in ideal laboratory conditions. However, industrially-produced solar modules currently achieve real-world efficiencies ranging from 20%–22%.
The manufacturing process for crystalline silicon solar module can be split into 4 main steps (read more about the silicon supply chain):
Mined quartz is purified from silicon dioxide into solar-grade silicon. There are many smaller steps to this process, including heating up the quartz in an electric arc furnace.
Solar-grade silicon is crushed into chunks and melted. Cylindrical monocrystalline silicon ingots are pulled out of a vat of molten silicon. After cooling, diamond-wire saws are used to slice the ingots into thin wafers.
These thin wafers are then processed into solar cells. The exact process for making the solar cell from the wafer depends on the design of the final solar cell. Anti-reflection coatings are deposited on the front surface and electrical contacts are added so electricity can flow.
Cells are electrically connected and layered onto glass and plastic sheets for mechanical stability and protection from outdoor conditions. Aluminum framing is typically used around the edges of the module for further reinforcement.
The module is ready to be placed on your roof or ground-mounted to generate clean electricity!
There are several crystalline silicon solar cell types. Aluminum back surface field (Al-BSF) cells dominated the global market until approximately 2018 when passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) designs overtook them due to superior efficiency.
Another transition is taking place from PERC designs to "n-type" technologies such as silicon heterojunctions (SHJ) and tunnel-oxide passivated contacts (TOPCon). This transition to n-type cells is also driven by efficiency improvements.
Additionally, inter-digitated back contact (IBC) cells are an advanced technology where all the metal contacts to the silicon cell are placed on the back surface. This means there is no light blocked by the presence of metal on the front surface of the cell. IBC designs are more complicated to manufacture, so they currently represent only a small fraction of crystalline silicon solar cell production.
Current SETO research efforts focus on innovative ways to reduce costs, increase the efficiency, and reduce environmental impact of silicon solar cells and modules. This includes the advancement of new technologies using n-type wafers, optimization of recycling processes, understanding degradation in silicon modules and integration of silicon cells into tandem architectures with other materials. Learn about active SETO funding programs that incorporate silicon PV research:
Learn more about the SETO''s silicon projects in theSolar Energy Research Database.
Learn more aboutSETO''s PV research andhow PV technologies work.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by all authors. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Mohamed Okil. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
This article does not contain any studies involving human participants performed by any of the authors.
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
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