Europeans on a Course for Innovation

Lots of research, less implementation
Now, they want to recapture this: In the past few years, institutes such as the ECN, the Fraunhofer-Institut for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg and the Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung (Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research) in Stuttgart have developed many new concepts for crystalline and thin-film cells, working out industry-standard production procedures together with the manufacturers. The companies now want to transfer some of the new techniques into industrial production.

With the MWT cells, developed by ECN, lasers undertake a key function: They bore small holes into each cell, which guide the generated energy to the reverse side. This is where all the connections needed for the further transportation of the solar energy are positioned. As a result of the lower shading, the efficiency increases to 17 percent. In addition, the cells are stuck on a special foil on the reverse side. As a result, they no longer need to be soldered together, which is time-consuming.

German companies are also focussing on laser technology. In the research project “Next Generation Solar Cells Laser Processing Systems” (Solasys), manufacturers are cooperating with institutes from all over Europe to check how new processes can improve industrial production. Specifically, they are dealing with five processes: The rapid production of microscopically small boreholes, the selective removal of thin coatings, edge isolation using lasers, the laser soldering of cell connections and laser-selective doping. The latter means the defined positioning of chemical elements in the silicon wafer in order to produce an electric field in the semiconductor material. Solar manufacturers can gain a detailed insight of the procedural innovations at the solarpeq, the international trade fair for production technology, between 29 September and 01 October 2010.