Simulation-based Efficiency Gain Analysis of 21.2%-efficient Screen-printed PERC Solar Cells

Passivated Emitter and Rear Cells (PERC) with efficiencies well above 20% are likely to become the next mass production technology. A quantification of all power loss mechanisms of such industrial PERC cells is helpful in prioritizing future efficiency improvement measures. We report on a numerical simulation of the power losses of a 21.2%-efficient industrial PERC cell using extensive experimental input data. Our synergetic efficiency gain analysis relies on deactivating single power loss mechanisms in the simulation at a time to access the full potential power gain related to that mechanism. The complete analysis therefore explains the efficiency gap between the industrial PERC solar cell and the theoretical maximum efficiency of a crystalline Si solar cell. Based on the simulations, the largest single loss mechanism is front grid shadowing followed by recombination in the emitter and its surface. All individual resistive losses, all individual optical losses and all (avoidable) individual recombination losses sum up to efficiency gains of 0.8%, 1.6%, and 1.3%, respectively, which is 3.7% in total. The efficiency gap between real and ideal solar cell is, however, much larger with 7.3%. The discrepancy is mainly due to the non-linear behaviour of recombination-based power losses which adds synergetic efficiency enhancements.