Cost‐benefit analysis of high‐eficiency cast polycrystalline silicon solar cell sequences

Abstract The incorporation of eficiency enhancement techniques and the use of high‐eficiency process sequences have led to the fabrication of polycrystalline silicon solar cells with efficiencies nearing 18% in the laboratory by various investigators. In this paper a number of cell process sequences used to fabricate high‐efficiency polycrystalline silicon solar cells are reviewed. A cost‐benefit analysis of the efficiency enhancement techniques was performed using the Interim Price Estimation Guidelines 2 model, developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA. the figure of merit used to compare the sequences was that the cost of additional power, generated by the efficiency enhancement technique, should be less than the selling price of the product. Techniques like oxide passivation and emitter etch‐back, and sequences like the buried‐contact process, were found to be cost effective.