Bifacial Solar Module Technology 2017 Edition
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Bifacial Solar Module Technology 2017 Edition It’s Time To Produce Solar Power On Both Module Sides Authors: Shravan K. Chunduri, Michael Schmela 2 TaiyangNews | Bifacial Solar Module Technology Contents 01 02 03 Introduction 5 Overview 6 Bifacial Cell Technolgy 9 • Basics of Bifacial • What Really • p-type Bifacial Cells Technology Changed • n-type Bifacial Cells • History of Bifacial • Market Players Technology 04 05 06 Bifacial Module 19 Bifacial System 22 Bifacial Market 23 Technology Technolgy • Glass-Glass • Junction Boxes Modules • Testing Modules • Transparent & Standarization Backsheets • Interconnection 07 08 09 Challenges For 24 Costs 25 Conclusion 26 Bifacial Cells, Modules & Systems 10 Interview LONGi 27 Interview Linyang © TaiyangNews 2017 All rights reserved. The text, photos and graphs in this report are copyrighted (cover photo credit: IBC Konstanz). TaiyangNews does not guarantee reliability, accuracy or completeness of this report's content. TaiyangNews does not accept responsibility or liability for any errors in this work. Publisher: TaiyangNews UG (haftungsbeschraenkt) Montsalvatstr. 15 80804 Munich, Germany www.taiyangnews.info Bifacial Solar Module Technology | TaiyangNews 3 Executive Summary Bifacial PV is a simple but excellent concept that opens site’s albedo, in addition to selecting appropriate locations the usually barren rear side of the photovoltaic device for with natural high albedo, the ground reflection can also be sunlight absorption. A typical bifacial cell, having metallic increased artificially by putting reflective materials such as contacts on both sides, produces more power than sand, gravel, white paint and sheets. standard cells in the same operation conditions. The power gain varies between 5 to 30%, depending on various Three topics are always in the center of discussion aspects, such as device design, site albedo, mounting for commercialization of a technology - bankability, conditions and many more. standardization and power measurement/solar simulation. These have been also the teething problems for bifacial The beauty of the technology is that every advanced cell technology, but considerable progress has been reached architecture can be easily tweaked to be bifacial. With for each of these aspects. Bankability is improving as the many solar module makers trying to expand into glass- number of installations using bifacial PV has finally started glass panels, solar module are ready to go bifacial. to grow quickly and several tier 1 module producers having The recent trend to PERC and the evaluation of other entered this field. An IEC standard to measure the IV advanced cell technologies further supports the move to characteristics of bifacial PV devices is in the final stages bifacial technology. of approval. And the leading solar simulator suppliers have developed equipment for bifacial PV devices, which now This report looks at the different levels to go bifacial - allows manufacturers to measure these cells and modules cells, wafer, modules, and at the leading producers and in a mass production environment. equipment suppliers active in these segments as well as their technical solutions. When going bifacial, the technical choice at the cell level is primarily among three commercial cell architectures - heterojunction (HJT), PERT and PERC. HJT, PERT and PERC have different levels of bifaciality. Most effective are HJT and PERT cells with a bifaciality of more than 90%, followed by IBC with a bifaciality of about 80%, while PERC is the least effective technology with about 70% bifaciality. At the module level the change required to go bifacial is primarily to replace the opaque backsheet with transparent material, which opens up the rear side of the panel for sunlight absorption. With solar glass getting cheaper, glass-glass modules are becoming a mature product now. The glass-glass structure enables module makers to extend warranties of the module to 30 years. There is also efforts to push transparent backsheets for bifacial modules. At the system level, there are several possibilities in order to get the maximum benefit from the bifacial system. As the rear side of the bifacial system relies on the installation t Enjoy reading our report on Bifacial Solar Module Technology Shravan K. Chunduri Michael Schmela Head of Technology, TaiyangNews Managing Director, TaiyangNews [email protected] [email protected] +91 996 327 0005 +49 173 15 70 999 Hyderabad, India Munich, Germany 4 TaiyangNews | Bifacial Solar Module Technology 1. Introduction The PV industry is making tremendous efforts to optimize cell structures in order to utilize every possible area on the Another advantage of bifacial technology is its semiconductor device available for sunlight absorption. complementary nature - it is not in direct competition with Reducing the finger width, innovative interconnection any advanced cell architectures but can be adapted to approaches, moving the metallization pattern partially or nearly every cell concept to improve their performance. completely to the rear side are parts of this effort. The only exception bifacial doesn’t work with is the The most efficient modules available commercially are standard cell structure based on a Back Surface Field based on back-contact cells from SunPower, which (BSF) platform, as the aluminum layer - which is applied actually open up the entire front surface for sunlight on the rear side of the cell to serve as BSF - covers the absorption. But this is a rather expensive technology full backside of the silicon slice. But the PV industry is - like most IBC approaches. There is a much cheaper anyways increasingly moving away from this standard alternative to ‘activate’ the rear surface of the solar structure, which is reaching its threshold in terms of substrate to generate higher power output. The concept is optimization towards higher efficiencies. One major called bifacial. This self explanatory term describes a solar limitation of the aluminum BSF film is that it does not device that is sunlight-sensitive on both sides – on the support efforts in reducing rear recombination velocities front as well as on the rear side. of less than 200 cm/s, which means an active rear passivation is required in order to increase efficiency. The bifacial concept is superior to standard PV, where the The fast transformation toward Passivated Emitter and photovoltaic effect is just limited to sunlight absorbed by Rear Cell (PERC) architecture is a clear indication of the front surface. Even diffused or reflected light, to which the PV industry’s ambition to move to high-efficiency cell the solar cell’s rear side is normally exposed, can generate technologies at low cost (see TaiyangNews PERC Solar charge carriers. A bifacial approach simply fully exploits all Cell Technology 2017 Edition for details). But not just possibilities. PERC, also other advanced cell technologies are currently in testing or first stages of future mass production, such as It is obvious that a typical bifacial cell, having metallic PERT, heterojunction, Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC) contacts on both sides, produces more power than - and they are all eligible for bifacial power production standard cells under the same operation conditions. (see graph, p.10 ). In other words, a good time for The power gain varies between 5 to 30%, depending TaiyangNews to take a thorough look on the status of on various aspects such as device design, site albedo, bifacial technology. mounting conditions and many more. Source: ISC Prime time: So far bifacial cells have been mostly used for some small scale demonstration plants, which cell manufacturers consider one obstacle for investors to jump on the technology as reliable long-term data is missing. But there are also a few larger installations, like this 2.5 MW plant in Chile (La Hormiga) from Imelsa and MegeCell based on ISC’s BiSon technology. Bifacial Solar Module Technology | TaiyangNews 5 2. Overview The bifacial concept is not new. It is known for many Research Center (ISC) Konstanz is calculated using the decades. But like with any new technology, it needs the following equation. right time innovations can be turned into mass production at competitive cost This time seems to be now. Before going into the details here are some basics of bifacial technology. 2.1 Basics of Bifacial Technology Note: Whereas is bifacial gain, is specific energy As mentioned above bifacial PV is nothing but making gbifacial ebifacial yield (kWh/kWp) of bifacial PV and is specific energy a solar cell light sensitive on both sides. All major emonofacial yield (kWh/kWp) of standard PV. advanced cell architectures are bifacial by nature. But the optimization needed to make the cell’s rear side receptive The bifacial modules also offer the opportunity for vertical for sunlight absorption is very minor. It is primarily about installations. Such installations can be considered for non- printing a rear metallization pattern that is similar to the traditional applications such as sound barriers on highways sunny side. The bifacial concept requires some changes and railways. at the module level. The major effort is to replace of the traditional opaque backsheets - either with a transparent One of the major bottlenecks of the technology is that its backsheet or glass. An important attribute of the bifacial benefits are hard to quantify. There are also no established cell and module is the so-called bifaciality factor, which standards on how to estimate power and label the module. is the ratio of the front side efficiency to the rear side Bifacial technology does not fit into the typical Wp sales efficiency. metric. “The largest enemy for bifacial is the old-fashioned 'watt peak thinking,' instead of a modern ‘kWh mentality’,“ At the system level, there are several ways to improve the says Radovan Kopecek, Managing Director of Advanced yield of a bifacial solar installation. As the output of the Concepts at the International Solar Energy Research rear side of the modules relies to a large extent on the site Center (ISC) Konstanz in Constance, Germany.