Optimisation of Front Metallisation Pattern in Silicon Solar Cells for Annual Energy Yield

Abstract

With photovoltaic installations reaching into the 1 TWp range and the demand for green electric energy on the rise, every fraction of a percent of increased solar cell efficiency counts and would result in a substantial increase in annual energy yield of the installed photovoltaic capacities. An optimisation of the front metallic grid would provide a relatively simple jet cost-effective boost to the solar cell efficiency. We employed a freely available 2.5D photovoltaic simulator to model shading and resistive losses of the front metallisation grid and to further optimise the grid for annual energy yield regarding the irradiation distribution. We were therefore able to increase the effective efficiency of the simulated solar cells up to 1% over the whole year depending on the location.