Crystal silicon photovoltaic cell efficiency hit a world record of 26.3%!

It is reported that Japanese Kaneka researchers have developed single-crystal silicon heterojunction solar cells with a conversion efficiency of a record-breaking 26.3% (a 0.7% increase over previous records). Although it may not seem to improve a lot, considering the theoretical limit efficiency of such batteries is only 29%, this is really a big improvement.

All along, efficiency and cost are two major factors that are considered by power plant investors when they invest in power plants. Products that have both efficiency and cost advantages are particularly favored by investors. High efficiency is an important weight to reduce the cost of photovoltaics. The photovoltaic industry belongs to the field of pan-semiconductors and applies equally to Moore's Law. With the cyclical, almost endless technological progress and iterations, the cost of photovoltaic power generation will almost cease to decline. At the same time, the photovoltaic market and industry scale will have a rapid expansion of several decades. It is expected that by 2020, photovoltaic power generation is expected to achieve parity Internet access.

With this breakthrough in efficiency, Zhonghua improved several technologies owned by 180CM solar NEDO. Through innovative heterojunctions to reduce resistive losses, the positive and negative charges in solar cells combine to generate heat, rather than letting them run out of the device to produce electricity. In addition, Zhonghua also improves the energy collection efficiency of the interdigital electrodes of solar cells. Not only that, the company also moved the electrode grid from the front of the battery - the light receiving area - to the back end, allowing more sunlight to enter the battery.

“However, the types of materials, production processes, and alternative architectures are all varied.” said Kunta Yoshikawa, a member of the Chung Hua new solar cell research team. “We are developing our own ( Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technology, optical management, and electrical contact technology to achieve 26.3% conversion efficiency."

Yoshikawa said that they hope to eventually reach the theoretical limit of the technology by further improving the main properties of the battery - a little over 29%.