Researchers at NREL found that UV exposure can cause significant, partly non-recoverable degradation in TOPCon solar cells, with strong cell-to-cell and intra-cell variability linked to passivation and processing inconsistencies. While some UV-related losses recover quickly under light and are unlikely to affect field performance, the findings highlight gaps in current qualification tests and the need for improved UV aging standards.
Image: NREL
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratory of the Rockies (NREL) have quantified performance loss from ultraviolet (UV) light in TOPCon solar cells and have found that cells with high UV-induced degradation (UVID) exhibit injection-dependent effective carrier lifetimes and large variability within a cell, indicating possible processing inconsistencies.
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