The Technical and Economic Viability of Replacing n-type with p-type Wafers for Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Abstract

Summary: Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells formed using n-type Cz silicon wafers are attracting increasing industrial interest. Cheaper p-type Cz silicon wafers can also be used to form SHJ cells; however, they achieve lower efficiencies. In this work, a Monte Carlo simulation approach is used to provide a comprehensive commercial comparison between n-type and p-type wafers, considering a wide range of uncertainty in the cost of production, the cost of the wafers, and cell performance. The most critical factors influencing the commercial comparison between wafer types were identified as the difference in cell efficiency, the difference in cost between n-type and p-type wafers, and the SHJ processing costs. The analysis provides a target for p-type SHJ solar cells of being within 0.4% absolute of that obtained with n-type wafers. This work motivates and sets research targets for the development of SHJ solar cells fabricated on p-type wafers.

Keywords

• silicon heterojunction
• p-type
• cost analysis
• Monte Carlo
• uncertainty