Progress in the HighVo- and POWER solar cell

Two new solar cell concepts-the HighVo (high voltage) and the POWER (polycrystalline wafer engineering result) solar cell-have been developed at the University of Konstanz aiming to conquer new markets for photovoltaic energy conversion. The HighVo solar cell relies on monolithical integration of crystalline silicon single wafer based solar cells to be incorporated in mobile electronics and large area high voltage modules. The best screen printed HighVo cell (21 cm/sup 2/) so far exhibits a voltage of 2.85 molts at MPPp and a conversion efficiency of 12.8%. The semitransparent POWER solar cell is well suitable for the fast growing market of building integrated PV and is currently in the stage of industrialization at the sunways AG. The best efficiency so far obtained on laboratory scale was 12.9% with a light transmittance of 16%.