Recycling of p-type mc-si Top Cuts into p-type mono c-Si Solar Cells

Solar cell results and material analysis are presented of 2 p-type Czochralski (Cz) ingots pulled from a charge consisting of 100% and 50% recycled multicrystalline silicon top cuts. The top cuts were pre-cleaned with a dedicated low energy consuming technology. No structure loss was observed in the bodies of the ingots. The performance of solar cells made from the 100% recycled Si ingot decreases towards the seed end of the ingot, which could be related to a non-optimal pulling process. Solar cells from the tail end of this ingot and from the 50% recycled Si ingot demonstrated an average solar cell efficiency of 18.6%. This is only 0.1% absolute lower than the efficiency of higher resistivity reference solar cells from commercially available wafers that were co-processed.