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Recycled Solar Cell

08.02.2022

A group of organizations led by the German Research Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) has produced PERC solar cells from crystalline silicon taken from old, end-of-life photovoltaic panels.

The processing technology was proposed by the German company Reiling GmbH & Co. KG and the Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics CSP. Funding was provided by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate BMWK.

Currently, aluminum, glass and copper are usually recovered and recycled from old solar modules, but not silicon cells. At the same time, in 2021, the total mass of photovoltaic modules installed in Germany was about five million tons, and their silicon content was estimated at 150 tons.

The peak of the "first wave" of the development of solar energy in Germany fell on 2009-2011. "After the end of the 2029-year feed-in tariff, the first wave of waste disposal will follow from XNUMX," explains Prof. Andreas Bett, Director of the Fraunhofer ISE. "Therefore, reasonable processes and methods for extracting silicon from used modules must be determined in advance."

The challenge for the researchers was to create a scalable and cost-effective recycling process.

The first step in the process is to remove the glass and plastic from the cell fragments, which range in size from 0,1 to 1 millimeter. Then, in the process of liquid chemical etching, the back contact, silver contacts, emitter, etc. are removed. The silicon purified in this way is processed into single-crystal or quasi-single-crystal ingots in a standard way, and then cut into wafers.

Fraunhofer ISE has produced 19,7% efficient PERC cells from 100% recycled silicon, i.e. without any addition of ultra-pure silicon. At the same time, old modules of various types were used without regard to the manufacturer and origin. "This is below the efficiency of today's premium PERC solar cells with around 22,2% efficiency, but certainly higher than solar cells in old, discarded modules," explains Peter Dold, Project Manager at Fraunhofer CSP.

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input voltage range 2,7...5,5 V;
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maximum current LDO-regulator 150 mA;
three special configurable current outputs for driving LEDs;
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housing WLP-30.

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