Monte-Carlo simulation of the cofiring process in polycrystalline silicon solar cells

Effects of material heterogeneity and thickness uncertainties

verfasst von

Seyed Roozbeh Nabavi, Felix Haase, Eelco Jansen, Raimund Rolfes

Abstract

During production, solar cells undergo significant thermomechanical loadings that lead to permanent deformations before being laminated in photovoltaic (PV) modules. One of these thermomechanical production processes is cofiring. In this work, the permanent deformation of solar cells after the cofiring process was investigated. The experimental measurements revealed a great scatter in the measured deflection at the deformed edges of the polycrystalline silicon solar cells after the cofiring process. A finite element (FE) framework was developed to investigate factors contributing to this scatter. The framework predicts the multistable response of the solar cell to the thermomechanical loading of the cofiring process. It accounts for the uncertainties arising from the heterogeneity of the polycrystalline silicon layer (grain orientations and non-uniform grain sizes) and uncertainties regarding the layer thicknesses of the silicon and aluminum paste. Employing the developed framework in a Monte-Carlo simulation the relative significance of the mentioned uncertainties on the deflection at the solar cell edge after the cofiring process was analyzed. Numerical results for a commercially produced polycrystalline silicon solar cell were compared with an analytical model and validated with experimental measurements.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Statik und Dynamik

Externe Organisation(en)

Institut für Solarenergieforschung GmbH (ISFH)

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

Band

170

Seiten

263-277

Anzahl der Seiten

15

ISSN

0927-0248

Publikationsdatum

27.06.2017

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Elektronische, optische und magnetische Materialien, Erneuerbare Energien, Nachhaltigkeit und Umwelt, Oberflächen, Beschichtungen und Folien

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 7 – Erschwingliche und saubere Energie

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.012 (Zugang: Geschlossen)