From pv publication 11/23
An effectiveness of 23.9% and power result of 741 W are numbers that deserve focus. Those outcomes existed by Chinese solar producer Risen Power for its most current, Hyper-ion component collection, which releases “G12” (210 mm), HJT half-cut cells in a big layout for huge range solar applications. Risen is additionally generating a “55-cell” variation of the very same component, for commercial and industrial application. At a significant 41 kg, the “66 cell” variation of the component is no light-weight.
In automation, the Hyper-ion does not fairly get to the soaring numbers of its champ of the collection. The components offered on the marketplace have a power result of 680 W to 705 W with a component performance of 21.9-22.7%. Risen’s outcomes still equal the best-performing components, nonetheless, and speak with the possibility of HJT.
Behind the dual-glass encapsulation there is a tip of the future of HJT in the Risen item. The firm has actually released a significant innovation– busbarless cell affiliation, which it calls Hyper-Link. The method changes standard busbars with a cable mesh that bonds and creates an electric call with the cell without using standard high-temperature soldering.
Hyper-Link makes use of 24 steel cables for cell affiliation, past the 18-20 multi-busbars made use of in the current high-performance items. While Risen has actually disclosed several of the technological techniques behind its Hyper-Link busbarless innovation, it is much from being an open publication.
pv publication Roundtable Europe
Session 3|Dec 5, 12:15 pm CET|Future generation cell and component technology
What does life-after-PERC resemble? High-efficiency n-type modern technologies have actually risen right into the mainstream with TOPCon plainly the front jogger. HJT and xBC modern technologies are additionally being progressed and bringing one-of-a-kind worth to the market. In the present surplus market,
exactly how will high-efficiency modern technologies complete, and what is the path for future expense decreases?
In addition, can these next-generation modern technologies conquer product supply difficulties?
Even more details[intellectual property] Busbarless extra typically is called zero-busbar or “0BB.” In one feeling the method is unique, in one more it is popular. What is clear is that it is arising at a range not seen prior to in PV production. Climbed alone desires a yearly manufacturing ability of 15 GW of its heterojunction components by the end of 2023.[on production lines]” There is important and really solid IP [non-disclosure agreements] being established for details application of the busbarless innovation,” stated George Touloupas, supervisor of innovation and top quality at solar technological consultatory Tidy Power Associates (CEA). “There is a significant quantity of privacy. There are obstacles in front of the stringers
and you are not enabled to see them. Inside, they make individuals authorize really stringent NDAs
and non-compete
— due to the fact that it is so crucial.”
| As Touloupas notes, there are different strategies being discovered for busbarless cell affiliation. The one with the lengthiest record entails cables installed right into a plastic movie, with electric call happening in lamination. Various other strategies make use of an epoxy material to hold the cables in position, with an encapsulation layer included a second procedure. | ” In China, mostly all the HJT pens are examining this innovation and attempting,” stated InfoLink principal expert Corrine Lin. “There are numerous no busbar options,” see table listed below. | Zero-busbar innovation under advancement | Remedy | SmartWire Link Modern Technology (SWCT) |
| Integrated movie covering (IFC) | Giving | Welding-dispensing | Summary | Copper-coated bows are placed by a clear aluminum foil. This foil-wire setting up (FWA) interconnects cells. Copper-coated bows and cells are securely integrated with lamination. |
| Interconnecting cells by positioning bows to their front and back sides with IFC. Cells and bows are securely integrated with lamination. | In between fingers. Area bows to cells by giving. Cells and bows are securely integrated with lamination. | Welding bows to cells (cell affiliation and ribbon-cell mix occur concurrently). Stick bows to cells making use of giving. | Giving technique | N/A |
| N/A | Display printing | Giving | Bow tabbing technique | Foil-wire (bow covered with copper) setting up |
| IFC | UV/epoxy adhesive (dispensing/screen printing) | Infrared welding adhered to by giving on both ends for additional addiction | Ribbon-cell link | Lamination |
| Lamination | Lamination | Infrared welding | Encapsulant | Carrier-film. Foil-wire (steel) setting up plus encapsulant. |
| Skin movie plus encapsulant | Skin movie plus encapsulant. Carrier-encapsulation movie (changed common encapsulant)/ polyvinyl butyral (PVB). Basic encapsulant | Pros Solid glue stamina in between cells and bows | A lot more conductive | Solid glue stamina in between bows and cells No demand to integrate bow production phase Much less difficult |
| No demand for skin movie and service provider movie. | Solid glue stamina in between cells and bows Superior hot-spot resistance | Disadvantages Integrate bow and movie in earlier production phase– extra difficult | Electroluminescence (EL) screening for issues just functions after lamination Have to include skin movie EL screening for issues just functions after lamination Requirements skin movie changed common encapsulant | Two-layer encapsulation expenses extra, while carrier-encapsulation movie is harder Ordinary glue stamina in between bows and cells EL screening for issues just functions after lamination |
| Damaging because of bow diminishing after welding | Calls for very exact giving which is lengthy and challenging | Fingers and bows bonded straight, mass-production (MP) is challenging | Business | Meyer Hamburger |
| XN Automation, Maxwell | Autowell, AUTO-ONE, XN Automation, Autowavs, Lead Smart | Maxwell | Development | Meyer Hamburger: MP |
| REC: MP; Astroenergy: R&D | Risen: MP; Tongwei, Jinko: R&D | Huasun: R&D Note | The foil-wire (bow covered copper) setting up is produced with a clear insulant optical movie, glue, and bows that are positioned over the surface area of the setting up and ingrained in the glue | Positioning bows to the front and back sides of cells with IFC on one assembly line |
Skin movie weight about 100 g/m ²
Repetitive lamination might be required because of typical glue stamina in between bows and cells. Some producers attempt to make use of PVB and autoclave for two-time lamination
Bows have to be thicker or created right into a harpoon-like form at their crossway with fingers, influencing silver usage decrease
Resource: InfoLink
Back to the future
As is so typically real in PV innovation, what’s old is brand-new and this additionally puts on busbarless innovation. The method was initial established by now-defunct Canadian producer Day4 Power in 2003 and was advertised, under the SmartWire tag, by Meyer Hamburger after its purchase of the innovation, when the Swiss firm was a pure-play manufacturing devices provider.
” When Meyer Hamburger began creating heterojunction innovation around 2010, the firm promptly got an IP from Day4,” stated Touloupas. “Meyer Hamburger saw it as a best suitable for heterojunction innovation.”
A testimonial by study institute Fraunhofer ISE– appointed by Meyer Hamburger and released in 2020– kept in mind that “Meyer Hamburger has substantial license households on HJT and SmartWire manufacturing systems, items and procedures; several of these license households will certainly not end till 2039.”
While HJT was an all-natural suit to SmartWire, Meyer Hamburger marketed some 500 GW of its busbarless lines to HJT and non-HJT producers in 2016-2017, according to the firm’s after that primary industrial police officer, Michael Escher. At the time, Escher talked with SmartWire’s capability to decrease silver usage, “to just 80 mg, rather than 300 mg per cell.”
Both silver usage and busbar innovation have actually come a lengthy method during duration. Silver paste and screen-printing innovation have actually made fantastic strides in decreasing the quantity of silver made use of in metallization, providing expense financial savings without using busbarless affiliation. Multi-busbar (MBB) innovation, of which the current generation has actually been badged “extremely multi-busbar,” has actually relocated right into mainstream manufacturing with alacrity.
” When Day4 established the innovation, the benefit versus 2- or three-busbar components would certainly’ve been much better,” stated Tristan Erion-Lorico, vice head of state available for sale and advertising at PV Development Labs (PVEL). “With some producers currently mosting likely to a 20-busbar component, the efficiency void isn’t so huge.”
Silver decrease
The efficiency increase provided by SmartWire, which can be reached various other busbarless strategies, remains in component that there is minimized shading of the cell surface area both by the busbars themselves and by the metallization paste. It is most likely in the effects for metallization where the busbarless and HJT mix genuinely radiates.[with busbarless technology] By decreasing “ohmic losses,” SmartWire promotes “fine-line metallization” and consequently “a radical decrease in silver use by 85% or even more,” according to scientists from the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM), in a 2014 paper provided at the EUPVSEC meeting in the very same year.
The CSEM was a long-running companion in the HJT devices and procedure advancement of Meyer Hamburger and organized a pilot line on its school in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The paper, “SmartWire solar battery affiliation innovation,” ended that the cell affiliation method stands for a “essential making it possible for innovation for affordable silicon heterojunction components as it allows to decrease the restraints on cell metallization conductivity.”
Chinese producers resembled the passion of the Swiss scientists. “The Chinese have actually been servicing this for many years and whatever is much better
— reduced expense and greater performance,” stated Alex Barrows, head of PV at solar production working as a consultant Exawatt. “The expense is reduced due to minimized silver use and there is greater performance due to much less shading. If a maker can make it function, it is a really cool option and over time it is virtually unavoidable that we will certainly relocate to something comparable for HJT.”[that of tunnel oxide passivated contact] Barrows kept in mind that the application of silver-coated copper paste, for HJT cell metallization, thins down several of this benefit, “and due to that possibly there was much less of a thrill to embrace zero-busbar as it currently did several of the operate in taking the expense out of HJT,” he stated. The advantages continue to be large.[solar] Climbed insurance claims that by releasing its Hyper-Link in addition to silver-coated copper paste, it can attain a silver material of 10 mg/cell in its Hyper-ion components. Comparative, the 14th version of the “International Modern Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics,” released in March 2023, ended that in 2022, typical positively-doped “p-type” silver usage stood at 11 mg/cell.
” I have actually seen in the roadmaps that zero-busbar can bring the HJT silver expense to
TOPCon
,” stated CEA’s Touloupas, keeping in mind that HJT is not a rival with p-type passivated emitter back call (PERC) solar, yet instead with n-type TOPCon.
Bismuth trouble
There is, nonetheless, a product difficulty. The innovation’s advancement was allowed, partially, by the use bismuth in affiliation cables.
” Among the primary developments attained by Meyer Hamburger ten years earlier, was to change the lead on the bow finishing with bismuth, as bismuth-tin alloy is low-temperature,” stated Touloupas. “That implies that the soldering is taking place in the laminator at around 150 C when the alloy attains and thaws call.”
Bismuth usage is possibly troublesome. In a 2021 research study, scientists from the College of New South Wales, in Australia– together with Amrock Consulting and Trina Solar– ended that offered bismuth would certainly restrict manufacturing to 330 GW– much higher than Risen’s targeted 2023 usage yet a possible traffic jam as the international solar sector swiftly increases towards terawatt range.
The paper is labelled “Style factors to consider for multi-terawatt range production of existing and future solar modern technologies: chances and difficulties associated with indium, bismuth and silver usage.” It ended that “substantial product usage decreases are needed to fulfill the target manufacturing price for lasting multi-TW range production in regarding 10 years from currently.”
Keeping one’s cool
Reduced temperature level handling is a need for HJT cells, as common shooting or soldering can harm fragile passivation layers. “MBB innovation commonly makes use of infrared soldering, which is as well warm for HJT,” claims PVEL’s Erion-Lorico. While busbarless affiliation attains call in the lamination procedure at much reduced temperature levels, difficulties continue to be.
” Something we have actually stated in the PVEL Scorecard is that we’re still seeing some fight with thermal biking results for some HJT producers, because the series of thermal biking outcomes is greater for HJT than for PERC– some are doing it well and some are having a hard time,” stated Erion-Lorico. “The reduced temperature level soldering can be a problem.”
Regardless of the fantastic progression that is being made, the fostering of any type of brand-new product or procedures in PV production at substantial range is something that can show up brand-new dangers.
” Whatever option is picked, and there are numerous, one of the most crucial point is integrity,” stated Touloupas. “We want to have the devices– extensive examinations– that can recognize the losers amongst busbarless innovation application. We require to recognize the failing systems and with any luck they coincide as those discovered in standard soldering.”
Meyer Hamburger did not reply to ask for a meeting concerning the firm’s SmartWire innovation. It is presently releasing SmartWire in its component production in Germany.(*) This short article was changed on 30/11/2023 to eliminate referral to the Day4 Power license. (*) This material is shielded by copyright and might not be recycled. If you wish to accept us and wish to recycle several of our material, please call: editors@pv-magazine.com.(*)
