Innovation prize plus world record panel efficiency

The unit Solar Energy of the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has won the European Innovation Prize 2009. This announcement was made 9 December 2009, at an EARTO meeting in Brussels. With REC from Norway the unit also raised the efficiency on solar panels to a breathtaking 17%. With this achievement the world record is back to ECN.

The innovation prize has been awarded by EARTO, the trade association of Europe’s specialised Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs). The price has been awarded to ECN because it has developed new solar cell and module technology. Earlier this year, in April, ECN proved that with this new technology a world record conversion efficiency of 16.4% could be achieved. In cooperation with Eurotron, ECN developed a special assembly line with which this new type of solar panel can be assembled. With this assembly line solar panels can be produced more quickly and at a lower cost.
The jury of EARTO commends the Back-Contact Solar Module Assembly Line for being “an excellent example of cooperation between ECN as a research institute and trade and industry, enabling the development of innovative technologies that have high social and economic relevance”. Another remark was: “With the Back-Contact Solar Module Assembly Line technology the deployment of solar panels can be highly increased, thus contributing significantly to a sustainable energy system and the climate objectives”, the jury said.

World record taken from SunTech
Recently the earlier mentioned ECN world record 16.4% efficiency is augmented by the cooperating ECN Solar Energy and the Norwegian company REC to a stunning 17%. By achieving this efficiency ECN/REC took over the world record from the Chinese company SunTech. Early December the ESTI-Institute in ISPRA (Italy) confirmed the Dutch/Norwegian claim. The European Solar Test Installation is the first accredited test facility for the calibration of photovoltaic devices worldwide, offering photovoltaic type approval tests and calibration services to manufacturers, research partners and other users. ESTI is part of the Renewable Energy Unit in the Institute for Energy which is one of the seven scientific institutes of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.
The world record was made possible by using the highest quality multi-crystalline silicon solar wafers from REC’s latest mass production lines in Norway. “The fact that ECN and REC now breaks this record shows the enormous progress made in solar energy technology over the last few years and by REC and ECN in particular. I am glad to report this new world record in the solar cell efficiency tables in January, 2010", says Chief Editor of Progress in Photovoltaics Martin Green.
The wafers are characterized by very low levels of impurities and dislocation densities achieved by using REC’s latest generation wafer furnaces. ECN’s rear-contact technology is based on the so-called metallization wrap-through technology (MWT) which includes making holes in the wafers prior to cell processing. In the MWT technology, the front electrode is “wrapped through” small holes in the cells, and contacted at the rear so that the front bus bars can be removed and less sunshine is reflected from the front of the panel. 

First time EARTO innovation awards
ECN has won the second prize, which it shares with the French organization CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission). TNO (Dutch organisation) receives the first prize for developing the Legionella chip. CEA receives the prize for the Motionpod. So far 350 knowledge institutes have joined EARTO, among which ECN. It is the first time that this prize has been awarded.

Contact
Paul de Jong
ECN Solar Energy
Tel.: +31 22 456 4731
Email: Paul de Jong 

Info
Click HERE to find detailed information on this assembly line.