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Germanys Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) has announced that it has produced a 421 W perovskite-silicon glass-glass tandem module with a surface area of ??1.68 m2. The module was assembled by Fraunhofer ISE with perovskite-tandem cells from the British manufacturer Oxford PV. The researchers used commercially available photovoltaic production equipment to manufacture the panel.
The German institute Fraunhofer ISE has manufactured a perovskite-silicon tandem solar module with a glass-glass design.
The panel has a conversion efficiency of 25% and a power of 421 W. It measures 1.68 m2 and uses cells produced by Oxford PV, a British manufacturer of perovskite solar cells with pilot production in Germany. Oxford PV claims that the module was assembled by the Fraunhofer team using its specifications.
“This new world record is a crucial milestone for Oxford PV as it demonstrates that our tandem solar cells can deliver record-breaking performance when assembled into solar panels,” said David Ward, CEO of Oxford PV.
The tandem cells produced by Oxford PV are M6 format. Last year, the company broke a record with a verified cell yield of 28.6%. The tandem cells are currently manufactured on a small series line in Brandenburg, Germany, with commercial production planned for the end of this year.
According to the researchers, they used commercially available photovoltaic production equipment, installed at the Fraunhofer Center for Module Technology Evaluation (Module-TEC), and optimized the processes to manufacture the glass-glass modules. “The fact that technology compatible with series production was used for its manufacture demonstrates the enormous potential of tandem technology for the photovoltaic industry,” said Stefan Glunz, head of the photovoltaic area at Fraunhofer ISE.
The solar cells were interconnected using conductive junction equipment in the Module-TEC of the Fraunhofer ISE. Because the perovskite layer of the tandem cells is temperature sensitive, the research team had to develop low-temperature processes for the interconnection and encapsulation of the solar cells.
“In the future, we will also try another alternative: soldering the solar cells at low temperatures,” explains Achim Kraft, head of the interconnection technology group at Fraunhofer ISE. “These are suitable for industrial mass production and can be implemented in commercial systems. The necessary adaptations can also be easily implemented in current photovoltaic production lines.
For calibration measurements, the Fraunhofer ISE turned to its well-equipped calibration laboratory to determine the modules efficiency, noting that precise and reproducible claims about the power of the tandem module are only possible if both the perovskite and cell layers silicon are illuminated by suitable LED light sources in conditions as close as possible to natural sunlight.
“Since currently standardized measurement methods are not fully transferable to this new technology, the method used was additionally validated with field measurements,” the researchers noted.
The project teams at Fraunhofer ISE and Oxford PV are now working on PV module certification and long-term stability testing. |
