Kyocera Is 1st To Mass-make Multicrystalline Si Solar Cells

摘要

Momentum continues to gather in the development of methods to improve energy conversion efficiencies in solar cells. To reach this goal, Kyocera Corp. has been conducting a research and development (R&D) project for Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) since September 2006. The project involves back-contact, multicrystalline silicon (Si) solar cells. As an interim goal, the FY2007 target was to achieve an energy conversion efficiency of 17 percent, using a multicrystalline Si solar cell just 100μm thick and with an area equivalent to 15sq.cm. In FY2008, the researchers are striving to raise the efficiency to 18 percent. By the time the project ends in FY2009, the researchers intend to have identified the issues central to modular technologies for ultra-thin cells.