UV-Stability of Industrial PERC, SHJ and TOPCon Solar Cells

Recent reports suggest a pronounced susceptibility of modern cell architectures to degradation induced by ultraviolet irradiation (UVID). We investigate the stability of bifacial PERC, SHJ and TOPCon solar cells produced in-house and by industry by subjecting the bare cells to a UV dose of 60 $\text{kWh}/\mathrm{m}^{2}$. This treatment is comparable to almost 40 years of continuous UV-irradiation of the AM 1.5G spectrum with module glass and UV-blocking encapsulation. The loss in pseudo efficiency of all probed industry cells remains below $3 \%_{\text{rel}}$, for TOPCon even below 1 $\%_{\text{rel}}$. When subjected to accelerated tests probing for light and elevated temperature induced degradation (LeTID), all industrial cells retain their high quality within a maximum deviation of 1 $\%_{\text{rel}}$ from the original pseudo efficiency. Our study shows that pathways to produce LeTID- and UVID-resistant solar cells based on modern technologies exist and are already known to some cell manufacturers.