Novel Power-Enhancing Ribbon for Solar Cell Interconnection
Tao Zhou, Marcel Konig, Andreas Henning, D. Hanselmann, Hoffmann, S., Pitta Bauermann, L., Esther Fokuhl, D. Eberlein, Achim Kraft, Ulrich Eitner, W. Pranger, Schütz, A. · EU PVSEC · 2018
Crystalline silicon solar cells are usually interconnected by solder-coated copper ribbons which are soldered onto the busbars of the front side metallization and the rear side solder pads. Commonly ribbons used for five busbar solar cell interconnection are 0.8-1 mm wide, 0.25 mm thick and reflect ~84-95% of the incident light out of the module. As a consequence, up to 10 W power loss may occur in typical 60-cell modules due to shading of the ribbons. This work presents the development of a novel selectively coated power-enhancing ribbon (SCRTM) which yields a module power gain of 1.88 W in average. An effective width (EW) of 70% was obtained for SCRTM and verified by light beam induced current (LBIC) measurements compared to standard ribbons with an EW of 90%. The 20%abs. lower value for the SCRTM is a result of improved internal reflection and demonstrates the higher current generation capability. The plug-and-play application allows simple substitution of standard ribbons without equipment modification which was proven in industrial process lines. Reliability tests demonstrate high reliability exceeding IEC 61215/61730 requirements