|
Title:
|
|
The effect of reduced silver paste consumption on the cost per Wp for tab-based modules and conductive-foil based modules
|
|
|
|
Author(s):
|
|
|
|
|
|
Published by:
|
Publication date:
|
|
ECN
Solar Energy
|
10-4-2015
|
|
|
|
ECN report number:
|
Document type:
|
|
ECN-W--15-017
|
Article (scientific)
|
|
|
|
Number of pages:
|
|
|
12
|
|
Published in: Energy Procedia (Elsevier), , 2015, Vol.67, p.163-174.
Abstract:
Currently Ag-paste consumption the most important cost factor for cell processing. Cell manufacturers are putting a great deal of effort into the reduction of Ag-paste usage. This leads to higher line resistances of the Ag-paste fingers and results in a trend in the photovoltaic market to apply more busbars per cell. More busbars mean more tabs in the module causing less resistive losses on module-level. In this work we perform cost-per-Wp computations using a model that treats cells and module in an integral way, based on analytical calculations. We show that the cost-per-Wp of tab-based modules can be reduced by applying lower and/or narrower Ag-paste fingers. We compare the reduced cost-per-Wp values of a tab-based module to an innovative conductive foil-based module. We show that the conductive foil-based module has a lower cost-per-Wp despite the extra cost of the foil. Furthermore, the use of lower and/or narrower fingers results in a further reduction of the cost-per-Wp values for the foil-based module as well.
More Information:
Back to List