Trina IBC Solar Cell Record 'Significant'
May 26, 2017The recent announcement by Trina Solar that it had reached a new solar conversion efficiency record of 24.13 percent in a Changzhou, China laboratory for an interdigitated back contact (IBC) mono-crystalline silicon cell, is a "significant achievement," according to a U.S. laboratory analyst.
"The efficiency is significant given the size of the cell at six inches," says Abasifreke Ebong, a professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
The 156 millimeter (mm) ×156 mm solar cell reached a total-area efficiency of 24.13 percent as independently measured by the Japan Electrical Safety & Environment Technology Laboratories (JET).
Trina said that the n-type mono-crystalline silicon solar cell was fabricated on a large-sized phosphorous-doped Cz (cubic zirconia) Silicon substrate with a low-cost industrial IBC process, featuring conventional tube doping technologies and fully screen-printed metallization.
Ebong notes that "the process of fabricating the cell is not outlined, which I believe is still the expensive lithography technology. Also, it is a laboratory demonstration which may take another year or so to implement in production." The Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) at the Charlotte Research Institute campus of UNC Charlotte, is a state-of-the-art research center that conducts applied research.
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ABB has been selected to participate in the FITNESS ("Future Intelligent Transmission NEtwork SubStation") project of SP Energy Networks, a UK-based electricity transmission and distribution network operator, along with other partners.The technical description of the cell test includes the following: "The champion cell presents the following characteristics: an open-circuit voltage Voc (overclocking) of 702.7mV (millivolt), a short-circuit current density Jsc (short-circuit current density abbreviation) of 42.1 mA/cm2 (milliamps per square centimeter) and a fill factor (FF) of 81.47 percent," Trina reported.
In April 2016, Trina Solar announced an improved industrial low-cost IBC solar cell with a total-area efficiency of 23.5 percent. Total-area efficiencies are always lower than aperture-efficiencies, due to efficiency losses related to the edges of the cells and electrical contact areas.
In February 2014, Trina Solar and the Australian National University (ANU) jointly announced a world record aperture efficiency of 24.37 percent for a laboratory-scale 4.0 cm2 IBC solar cell, fabricated on a Float Zone (FZ) n-type substrate and using photolithography patterning. In December 2014, Trina Solar announced a 22.94 percent total-area efficiency for an industrial version, large size (156mm x 156mm, 6" substrate) IBC solar cell, the company noted.
"Over the last few years, our R&D team has managed to continuously improve the efficiency of our n-type IBC solar cells, pushing the limits and surpassing our previous records, and approaching very closely to the performance of our best small-area laboratory cell developed in collaboration with ANU three years ago," said Dr. Pierre Verlinden, Vice-President and Chief Scientist of Trina Solar.
"IBC solar cells are one of the most efficient silicon solar cells available today and are particularly suitable for applications for which the requirement of a high power density is more important than LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity). We are very happy to announce today that our industrial large area IBC cell has reached almost the same level of performance as the small-area laboratory cell made three years ago with a photolithography process," Verlinden added.
Lead image: The 15-MW Sunshine Coast Solar Farm in Valdora powered by Trina Solar panels. Credit: Trina.
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SolarWorld AG's U.S. unit joined a trade case asking the federal government to impose duties on low-cost imports that have fueled a nationwide boom in solar installations.
The company, which filed a separate trade complaint that led to U.S. tariffs on Chinese panels in 2012, become a co-petitioner Thursday in Suniva Inc.'s case before the U.S. International Trade Commission. Suniva, a bankrupt Georgia manufacturer, initiated the complaint in April, saying it's impossible to compete with cheap imports, predominately from Asia.
The case threatens to upend the American solar market and has drawn vociferous opposition from the industry's leading trade group. The duties Suniva is requesting would double the price of panels in the U.S. and hobble growth, analysts and industry advocates say. Yet Suniva and SolarWorld contend tariffs are necessary for them to compete with international rivals.
"We have hoped and waited for serious proposals for settling the overall U.S. solar industry's trade tensions with China, but we have received none," Juergen Stein, president of SolarWorld Americas, said in a statement. "Therefore, we have decided to join the case to pursue the best remedy available to us to restore fair competition in the U.S. market."
Bankrupt German-based Solarworld AG owns a factory in Oregon.
Solar installations in the U.S. have soared in recent years, largely because of low-cost panels imported from Asia. The price of photovoltaic cells within these panels has declined nearly 50 percent since 2012, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst Hugh Bromley.
SolarWorld and Suniva are the two largest U.S. manufacturers of polysilicon-based panels. Combined, they had the capacity to produce 1.5 gigawatts of solar modules and cells in 2016, accounting for 65 percent of U.S. production, according to Suniva's ITC complaint.
That capacity, however, pales in comparison to the output of panel makers in China, where the largest company, JinkoSolar Holding Co., shipped 6.7 gigawatts last year.
The earlier trade case filed by Solarworld prompted the Commerce Department to impose duties of as much as 250 percent on solar cells produced in China.
260,000 Jobs
Suniva has asked for import duties of 40 cents per watt for solar cells produced outside the U.S. and a floor price of 78 cents per watt for panels. That would more than double the price of cells, which currently sell for 25 to 33 cents per watt, depending on efficiency, Bromley said.
The Solar Energy Industries Association has warned that the move would devastate the industry, endangering an industry with 260,000 U.S. jobs. Suniva's majority owner, China-based Shunfeng International Clean Energy Ltd., has also objected, saying the move is "not in the best interests" of clean energy markets.
The ITC will conclude its investigation by Sept. 22, and send its recommendations to President Donald Trump for a decision later this year.
"The potential damage to the solar industry as a result of this petition could kill many thousands of American jobs and put a stop to billions of dollars in private investment," SEIA Chief Executive Officer Abigail Ross Hopper said in an emailed statement.
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Politics Alert Fri., May. 26, 2017 7:37 p.m.
Senate Intelligence Committee requests all Trump campaign documents dating to 2015 The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked President Trump's political organization to gather and produce all documents, emails and phone records going back to his campaign's launch in June 2015, according to two people briefed on the request. The letter from the Senate arrived at Trump's campaign committee last week and was addressed to the group's treasurer.
The request to Trump's political operatives represents the first time that Trump's official campaign structure has been drawn into the Senate committee's ongoing bipartisan investigation.
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