High-Efficiency Modules With Passivated Emitter and Rear Solar Cells—An Analysis of Electrical and Optical Losses

We process a photovoltaic (PV) module with 120 half passivated emitter and rear cells that exhibits an independently confirmed power of 303.2 W and a module efficiency of 20.2% (aperture area). The cells are optimized for operation within the module. We enhance light harvesting from the inactive spacing between the cells and the cell interconnect ribbons. Additionally, we reduce the inactive area to below 3% of the aperture module area. The impact of these measures is analyzed by ray-tracing simulations of the module. Using a numerical model, we analyze and predict the module performance based on the individual cell measurements and the optical simulations. We determine the power loss due to series interconnection of the solar cells to be 1.5%. This is compensated by a gain in current of 1.8% caused by the change of the optical environment of the cells in the module. We achieve a good agreement between simulations and experiments, both showing no cell-to-module power loss.