7 / 15
allied
academies
Page 52
Notes:
Journal of Materials Science and Nanotechnology | Volume 3
October 07-08, 2019 | Frankfurt, Germany
Materials Science and Engineering
3
rd
International Conference on
Mater Sci Nanotechnol, Volume 3
Innovative silicon-based PV technologies to reduce electricity production costs
Cosimo Gerardi
Enel Green Power, Italy
T
he costs per watt of the solar cell has dropped so fast that
the module manufacturing is a small fraction of the total
costs,andthebalanceofsystemcost,orcommoditymaterials,
drive the cost of producing solar energy. Because of the cost
structure, increasing efficiency andaverage energy generation
are Today the most powerful levers for overall cost reduction.
Silicon Heterojunction (HJT) is an innovation in PV, which
can win the competition with mainstream technologies
based on consolidated diffusion processes in silicon. In fact,
by leveraging on high efficiency, high thermal stability, lower
degradation per year and high bifacial factor, HJT can lead to
a remarkable reduction of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE)
in €/kWh. The fabrication process of HJT is simpler andmakes
it the most performing technology based on silicon, relying
on its compatibility with several advances that will allow the
solar cell to overcome the theoretical limits of silicon, aiming
at achievingmore than 30% cell efficiency. In particular, multi-
junction solar cells are themost promising path to increase PV
moduleperformances,severalapproachesareexploredtofind
a tandemstructure, which canbe industrialized. Couplingwith
an HJT bottom cell seems a viable path to obtain an industrial
application. We report on the efforts for the development and
industrialization of innovative Si heterojunction technology
towardsmore than 25%efficiency, aswell as on the activities to
overcome the theoretical limits of silicon, aiming at more than
28%, through implementation of multiple junction structures.
e
:
cosimogerardi@enel.com