Researchers develop transparent crystalline silicon solar cells with neutral color similar to glass

By Lim Chang-won Posted : December 12, 2019, 13:33 Updated : December 12, 2019, 13:33

[Courtesy of UNIST]


SEOUL -- Researchers have developed transparent crystalline silicon solar cells with a neutral color similar to the glass which could be used in various applications such as building windows due to high efficiency and stability.

Crystalline silicon (c-Si) substrates are widely used for photovoltaic solar cells. However, silicon solar cells are difficult to make transparent because they mainly absorb visible light to produce electrical energy. To become transparent, all visible light should be penetrated.

A research team led by Seo Kwan-yong, an energy engineering department professor at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), has developed neutral-colored transparent c-Si solar cells that exhibit the highest efficiency among neutral-colored transparent solar cells.

"Our work would lead to new possibilities of developing transparent devices using c-Si, particularly for application in photovoltaics," the researchers said in a research paper published by Joule, a scientific journal, adding transparent neutral-colored c-Si solar cells showed a power conversion efficiency of up to 12.2 percent.

Transparent c-Si substrates were fabricated by placing microhole-shaped light transmission windows on a bare c-Si wafer, and these windows were designed to enable the transmission of all incident visible light through the substrate, resulting in a colorless substrate, according to the paper. A light absorption area was designed to efficiently absorb incident light.

"Our transparent c-Si solar cells present a unique opportunity to develop next-generation colorless transparent photovoltaics," Seo's team said.

The team placed microhole-shaped light transmission windows, which are not visible to the naked human eye, and carried out the systematic tuning of the transmittance of the substrate by adjusting the design of light transmission windows, resulting in a transparent c-Si substrate with a neutral color similar to glass even when a relatively thick wafer is used.

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