Ann Waldhauer

Generation 3: Improved performance at lower cost

This paper reports recent progress by SunPower Corporation to commercialize the Generation 3 product. The Generation 3 product has been designed to deliver both increased performance and lower manufacturing cost. Improved performance was achieved through optimization of the diffusion recombination losses. A conversion efficiency of 24.2% was achieved on a champion cell made on production equipment using a production wafer, 155.1cm2 n-type CZ. This result was verified by the National Renewable Energy testing Laboratory. Modules made with Generation 3 cells were measured by NREL to have > 20.4% total area efficiency (>332W with 1.63m2 modules). This paper presents the design changes before detailing the resulting performance.

Generation III high efficiency lower cost technology: Transition to full scale manufacturing

This paper reports on the first large scale manufacturing of Gen III solar cells. The Gen III product has been designed to deliver increased performance and lower cost throughout the value chain. Reduced emitter recombination is the key feature to deliver the efficiency improvement. Gen III is now ramping on a production line in SunPowers Philippines manufacturing plant. Production run median efficiency is 23.6%. Total area module efficiency is 21.2 %. The Gen III solar cell architecture has a low breakdown voltage in reverse, which minimizes power loss and wear on module materials under shaded conditions.