Rear-Junction P-Type PERC/TOPCon Hybrid Solar Cells (RJ-PERP) Project

Summary

Need

This project is funded under the ULCS PV Research and Development Round and will build on ARENA’s previous investment into solar PV that support projects aligning with ARENA’s ‘Solar 30 30 30’ target to improve module efficiency to 30 per cent and reduce total construction costs of utility scale solar farms to 30 cents per watt by 2030. Funding is being made available to focus on commercialisation prospects, which will take place after an initial R&D phase, to assist getting the new technologies into the market.

Action

The project will be delivered in two stages, a 3-year R&D Stage, followed by a 2-year Commercialisation Stage. During the R&D Stage, the project will develop processing sequences suitable for pilot-line implementation, including top aluminium metallisation line width reduction, optimising polysilicon layer to avoid rear-junction shunting utilising silver or aluminium rear contacts, exploiting RJ-PERP’s “wrap around” tolerance, accelerated testing of pilot-line product, and evaluation of further efficiency improvements will be conducted. The Commercialisation Stage will involve pilot-line evaluation of the new technology.

Outcome

The hybrid RJ-PERP cell configuration aims to capture the best features of both the PERC and TOPCon cells to produce a cell with overall higher performance without the cost premium of TOPCon cells. RJ-PERP technology would provide a higher efficiency, lower cost medium-term PV solution up until perovskite/silicon or other novel tandems become mainstream.