German Schott Solar reaches 19.7% efficiency with silver-free solar cell

Dec 13, 2011 - German photovoltaic (PV) equipment maker Schott Solar AG announced today it had achieved an efficiency rate of 19.7% with a silver-free solar cell, whose front side only requires electroplated copper contacts.

The backside of the solar cell is passivated using PERC technology and aluminum screen printing, the company said.

The new type of cell achieved the almost 20% efficiency rate on industrial wafer size 156 mm x 156 mm. These cell results were verified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) on December 8, 2011, Schott Solar added.

With the new cell Schott Solar aims to achieve higher output at lower production costs, Axel Metz, head of Solar Cell Development at the company, said.

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