Compound/silicon heterojunction (SCH) solar cells have been widely studied due to the low parasitic absorption of the window layer, high short-circuit current, and simple preparation process. So far, most reported SCH solar cells are small-area devices. By depositing MoO x hole transport layer using hot-wire oxidation-sublimation deposition technique and employing a front-contact back-junction cell architecture, the large-area SCH solar cells are successfully fabricated on M6 (166 mm) n-type silicon wafers. Indium cerium oxide (ICO) film with the optimal thickness of about 110 nm is inserted between MoO x and Ag. The ICO/Ag stack functions well as a back reflector and is beneficial for increasing the short-circuit current density, reducing the contact resistance, and improving the device stability. A power conversion efficiency of 21.59% is achieved on the champion SCH solar cell with the device area of 274.15 cm 2.

Rapid population growth has exacerbated problems surrounding natural resource consumption, and environmental concerns have deteriorated in various parts of the world. Energy generation accounts for a significant share of overall greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. As a result, eliminating pollution from energy-generating is a viable and significant research topic in academia. It is essential to begin exploring alternatives to traditional electricity plant-based generation that use coal, oil, or natural gas as a source of raw materials. The development of alternative power sources is becoming a focal point of the electricity-generating business over the last few decades. In this review, Wind power, Solar panels, Biogas as well as fuel cells are examples of mature modern energy generation systems today. Among these, photovoltaic panels seem to be the most widely accepted and practical technology for usage in both residential as well as commercial buildings. The capability of photovoltaic panels in the US has already surpassed 14 GW in 2014. By 2030, the solar energy sector hopes to generate 10% of the nation’s maximum amount of electricity. Systems using photovoltaic panels have become a new method to produce electricity. An abundant, limitless, cheap, and clean energy source is solar radiation. Because they use solar energy, solar panels are regarded as a clean and environmentally friendly method to produce electricity. Even though photovoltaic panels produce essentially no pollution (or) greenhouse gas emissions during operation, they do have an influence on the environment during the manufacturing and end-of-life processes. While these impurities are treated improperly and without safeguards in the recovery portion of the manufacturing process and then discharged into the environment, they constitute serious pollution risks. Researchers in Europe and Japan frequently use the term “Eco-balance” instead of “LCA”, but the two terms have nearly identical meanings. Along with the LCA approach from 1993, this package also includes goal and scope definition, life-cycle inventories, life-cycle impact assessments, and life-cycle improvement analyses. ”LCA is the examination and evaluation of a product system’s inputs, outputs, as well as potential environmental implications for its life cycle. Limitations of Life Cycle Assessment as well as the importance of LCA study are also discussed in this review. A case study of the Lake Street Garage in Fort Collins, Colorado is also included in this research. According to the findings of the LCA study, a solar power system has some benefits in terms of lowering greenhouse gas emissions and gaseous toxic releases. On the other side, traditional power plants generate less toxic waste than solar panel systems. The Lake Street Parking Garage’s solar panel system on its roof will not be able to recoup its expenses throughout its 25-year lifespan, according to the LCC result.

High levels of airborne dust, frequent dust storms and infrequent rain events are some of the reasons why soiling can drastically reduce the energy yield of photovoltaic modules in desert areas. There are ongoing and increasing efforts to identify appropriate and economically feasible strategies that can be used to mitigate soiling in deserts. Both innovative tracking with adapted resting positions during night and anti-soiling coatings (ASC) are considered as potential solutions to reduce soiling. In this study, the individual mitigation potential of both ASC and tracking routines as well as the combination of the two approaches are investigated. For this, outdoor exposure tests were carried out in desert region of Saudi Arabia. Coated and uncoated glass samples were tested in different tilt configurations: fixed, 1-axis tracking with horizontal stowage (facing the sky) and 1-axis tracking with vertical stowage during the night. Both methods indicate significant soiling reductions, especially for the combined solution of ASC and tracking with vertical night stowage, where soiling losses can be reduced by up to 85%. In addition, it has been shown that by adapting tracking, the relative ASC performance can be improved compared to fixed tilt or standard 1-axis tracking scenarios.

Organic photovoltaics (OPV) has attracted tremendous attention as a promising alternative to silicon wafer-based technologies for building integration. While significant progress has been achieved on the power conversion efficiency of OPV technologies, their field stability is rarely studied. This work investigates the field performance and reliability of a large-area OPV module designed for BIPV application in the tropical region of Singapore for 4.5 years. The device suffered more than 14% degradation in power at the standard testing conditions from the initial performance, largely due to losses in fill factor (-12% relative). During the monitoring period, it exhibited comparable performance to more conventional silicon PV technologies, with an average specific energy yield of about 4 kWh/kWp/day and an average performance ratio of 0.96. Excellent performance at low light conditions was also observed. However, its field performance was heavily impacted by soiling, which typically led to a 5 to 10% loss in the current output after several months. Further, the device’s outdoor performance also showed a three-stage degradation process, including (1) an initial slow degradation in the first two years (about -1%/year), (2) a stable period with negligible performance loss from year 2 to year 3.5 and (3) a rapid degradation in the last year (about -5%/year).

With the improvement of surface passivation, bulk recombination is becoming an indispensable and decisive factor to assess the limiting efficiency ( η lim ) of crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. In simultaneous consideration of surface and bulk recombination, a modified model of η lim   evaluation is developed. Surface recombination is directly depicted with contact selectivity while bulk recombination is revised on the aspects of ideality factor and wafer thickness. The η lim of cutting-edge photovoltaic technologies, double-side tunneling-oxide passivating contact (TOPCon) and silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells, are numerically simulated using the new model as 28.73% and 29.00%, respectively. Hybrid solar cells consisting of n-type TOPCon contact and p-type SHJ contact can approach an η lim as high as 29.18% at the optimal wafer thickness ( W opt ) of 103 μm . Our results are instructive in accurately assessing efficiency potential and accordingly optimizing design strategies of c-Si solar cells.

STC power control of PV modules supply requires testing large samples of modules with low uncertainty. This paper analyses the feasibility of outdoor measurements with the modules kept at their operating positions. The classical procedure of recording I-V curves and translating them to STC in accordance with IEC 60891 using the cell temperature directly observed at a few points of the rear of the module entails uncertainties larger than 3% (k=2), which is too much for this procedure being accepted in quality controls with contractual consequences. A convenient procedure for overcoming this barrier consists in comparing the I-V curves of a tested and a reference module of the same type, both working under the same operating conditions. The latter is mostly secured if they are in adjacent positions. However, when the procedure is applied to large samples of PV modules kept in their operating position, the distance between both modules can reach tens of meters and significant inter-module temperature differences can arise. An artifice for counterbalancing these differences consists of estimating the temperature of the tested module and the “true” temperature of the reference module, as deduced from the V OC measurement, by the temperature difference observed at their respective back-sheets in a central position. This allows the measured power values to be corrected and provides clues to estimating the uncertainty of the results. This procedure has been applied in seven testing campaigns, carried out at commercial PV plants. Dedicated instrumentation, based on two radio linked I-V tracers, allowing the simultaneous measurement of the I-V curves and of the temperature at the centres of the reference and the tested modules, has been developed for that. The resulting uncertainties are slightly larger than those corresponding to high-quality solar simulators, but still low enough for dealing, in practice, with strict quality control requirements.