Multiple commissioning decided for Freiburg's "Metzgergrün" quarter

The potential of photovoltaics (PV) has not yet been exhausted; industry and research are working intensively on further increasing the efficiency and reducing the costs of solar cells, the heart of PV power plants. For multicrystalline silicon, the workhorse of the solar cell industry, researchers at Fraunhofer ISE have now achieved an efficiency of 21.9 percent, bringing the world record back to Freiburg.

Higher efficiencies and optimised process steps are crucial to lower the price of solar electricity even further. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE is working on both. The Freiburg researchers have now set a new world record for efficiency. A multicrystalline silicon solar cell converts 21.9 percent of sunlight into electrical energy. This means that Fraunhofer ISE once again holds the world record for multicrystalline silicon solar cells, which it already held from 2004 to 2015. The solar cell is made of n-type high performance (HP) multicrystalline silicon, which has a higher tolerance to important impurities, especially iron, compared to p-type. Today, multicrystalline p-type silicon material is used in industrial production and the average efficiencies are 19 percent. The new material and technology approach adopted by Fraunhofer ISE has the potential to improve the efficiency of multicrystalline silicon even further in the near future.

Source: PM of Fraunhofer ISE (Freiburg) from 20.2.2017: Multicrystalline silicon solar cell with 21.9 % efficiency - world record back at Fraunhofer ISE

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DE-News, Renewable, News Blog Baden-Württemberg, PV, Ecology