The 28th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition [EU PVSEC 2014] will be held at the RAI Convention & Exhibition Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands from September 23rd – 25th 2014.
During the Exhibition, Heraeus Photovoltaics Business Unit will be highlighting research and development projects developed by their organization in partnership with solar institutes in Europe.
The goal of the company is to assist PV industry in reducing the cost per watt of solar installations. The core competency is the development of high performance metallization pastes for solar cells, stated, Andreas Liebheit, global manager, Heraeus Photovoltaics Business Unit.
The perfection is achieved through working with leading research institutes such as Fraunhofer, ISFH and ECN to understand the needs of the industry gaining an insight into the potential barriers of advanced cell designs, added, Liebheit.
This perfection is the foundation of the robust patent portfolio in metallization paste technology. It also increases the ability to help customers and the industry lower the cost per watt for solar, continued, Liebheit.
Heraeus through intensive research has tried to improve metallization characteristics such as contact, adhesion, processing window voltage, finger line geometries and cell efficiency for conventional and advanced c-Si cell designs, stated, Weiming Zhang, VP, Technology, Heraeus Photovoltaics Business Unit.
The results help to accrue a patent portfolio allowing working with leading research institutes and customers to develop innovative formulations. In addition, the challenges forced further to develop new ground breaking technologies that also strengthen the intellectual property position in the market, added Zhang.
Heraeus’ partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in the development of pastes for extrusion technology enabled 30 micron finger lines with an increase in efficiency up to 0.40 percent absolute relative to traditional screen printing.
Fraunhofer ISE will highlight recent results in their Visual Presentation 2CV.4.12 during the EUPVSEC conference, named “Ultrafine Front Side Metallization on Silicon Solar Cells by Industrial Dispensing Technology.
In cooperation with the Photovoltaics Innovation Alliance, Heraeus and SolarWorld Innovations successfully demonstrated coextrusion metallization technology, achieving fired finger lines less than 30 micron and average efficiency gains of 0.25% absolute relative to traditional screen printing.